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Information for Social Change Issue 21

Information for Social Change

"an activist organisation that examines issues of censorship, freedom and ethics amongst

library and information workers..."

ISC 21, Summer 2005

E-Books; Public Libraries, Information, Communities, Social Exclusion
and Culture; Copyright, Libraries in Nigeria and Globalisation

CONTENTS

Article

Page no.

Editorial by John Pateman and Ruth Rikowski

How anyone can write, compile and sell (or give away) e-books on the Internet - Kingsley Oghojafor

Information needed to cope with crisis in the lives of individuals and communities: an assessment of the
roles public libraries and voluntary sector agencies play in the provision of such information - Zapopan

Martin Muela Meza

Breaking Barriers: Libraries and Socially Excluded Communities. By Annette DeFaveri

Culture, Identity and Libraries. By John Pateman

Key Worker Status for Library Workers - Martyn Lowe

Failed Globalisation Policies Effects on African Faiths - David Nderitu

Pain of Globalistion - David Nderitu

Rethinking the ‘balance in copyright’: 3 parts to the balance, not just one! - Ruth Rikowski

Using libraries in Nigeria as tools for education and national development in the 21 st century - Rose B. Okiy

Going to the Movies - Martyn Lowe

Imperialism, Censorship and Fascism - Fernando Buen Abad DomAnguez

Report of the Book Launch for Ruth Rikowski’s book Globalisation, Information and Libraries

A World to Win: a rough guide to a future without global capitalism by Paul Feldman and Corinna Lotz.
Reviewed by John Pateman

Globalisation, Information and Libraries. Reviewed by John Pateman

Globalisation, information and libraries: the implications of the World Trade Organisation’s GATS and TRIPS
Agreements. Reviewed by John Vincent

Book review of E-book publishing services: how anyone can write, compile and sell e-books on the Internet
by Kingsley Oghojafor - Reviewed by Ruth Rikowski

Book review of Helen Macfarlane: a feminist, revolutionary journalist and philosopher in mid-nineteenth 96

century England by David Black - Reviewed by Ruth Rikowski

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

EDITORIAL FOR ISC NO. 21

by John Pateman and Ruth Rikowski

We begin this issue with a piece by Kingsley Oghojafor who considers how
to write, compile and sell an e-book on the Internet. He says that:

Whether you are a Librarian who has vital information to share with your other
Librarians or an Information Professional who wants to sell what you know in an e-
book format, you can easily write and seif-pubiish your own e-book, (p.1 [21])

He then lists some of the simple steps that are involved in writing one’s own
e-book. Firstly, he highlights the importance of finding a subject to write about
that the author is passionate about and secondly, the importance of
researching the subject thoroughly. Thirdly, the process of writing the book
itself, fourthly, the preparation of a cover for the e-book, fifthly, compiling the
e-book, sixthly, selling the e-book and finally, marketing the e-book. Oghojafor
concludes by saying that:

The book will show you exactly how you too can become a self-published e-book
author. It will take you step-by-step through idea conception, writing and editing,
compiling with free or paid e-book compilers, publishing, and most especially
marketing the finished e-book to millions of people on the Internet, for fun or profit.

(P-7 [27])

Clearly, being able to write, compile and sell e-books can be highly beneficial
for progressive library and information workers throughout the world, and can
provide us with the opportunity to spread our ideas and our messages to a
wider audience.

We then have an article by Zapopan Martin Muela Meza which is entitled
Information needed to cope with crisis in the lives of individuals and
communities: an assessment of the roles public libraries and voluntary sector
agencies play in the provision of such information. Zapopan considers how
community information services help people in different communities cope
with their daily life. He highlights two broad categories in this regard - survival
information, such as health, housing and income and citizen action
information. The latter is needed if people are to be able to participate in the
social, political, legal and economic process, Zapopan says. He then analyses
some of the roles that public libraries and voluntary sector agencies should
play in helping to provide this service, such as the role they can play in
helping to alleviate inequality and in promoting community based research.
He concludes by saying that:

.. .librarians and information workers, in order to serve well, pertinently, effectively and
efficiently must include in their job description the flagship duties of going out to the
streets. They need to walk and stroll around the community veins and arteries... (p.9
[51])

Two articles in this issue, from different sides of the Atlantic, look at the
barriers that exist for some people who need public libraries the most but use

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

them the least. Annette DeFaveri, who works at the Vancouver Public Library
(VPL), considers Breaking Barriers: Libraries and Socially Excluded
Communities.. This is a very grounded essay, based on both research and
practice, into how the public library as an institution is inherently and inevitably
exclusive. Annette describes some very real situations which take place at
issue and enquiry desks every day - situations which humiliate working class
people and turn them off libraries. This article has been used to raise
awareness among front line staff at VPL and it is ideal training material -
accessible, well written and punchy. In a companion piece John Pateman
considers Culture, Identity and Libraries, in the second of his series of articles
for ISC on public libraries and the working class. John considers social class
as an important aspect of culture and identity. The working class have always
had a very strong culture and language but, as Michael Collins has pointed
out in his excellent book “The Likes of Us” (and accompanying Channel 4
program), over the last 50 years the working class have been changed from
the salt of the earth to the scum of the earth by middle class commentators.
John makes the point that class, like race, can only ever be self defined, as a
key aspect of personal identity.

This is then followed by a short piece by Martyn Lowe entitled Key worker
status for library workers. Here, Martyn highlights the fact that library workers
undertake important, highly skilled work, but on low pay. Therefore, that all
library workers should be classified as Key Workers, and that their grades and
pay should be improved, in order to reflect this key worker status.

We have 2 pieces by David Nderitu on globalisation. The first is entitled
Failed Globalisation Policies Effects on African Faiths and the second is Pain
of Globalisation. In the first piece, David Nderitu considers the fact that, at
first, many Africans saw hope in globalisation. However,

In Africa, liberalisation was chaotic. The Africans broke down all trade barriers.

Anyone could bring anything, anyhow, anytime (AAA).. .Control was being lost and
some people became filthy rich and most became terribly poor. It was an economic
disaster, which only ended making a bad situation worse. The leaders had been told
to liberalise so that they could remain in power, (p.1 [9])

So, a chaotic situation ensued, which only led to a widening of the gap
between the rich and the poor. He says that moral questions will undoubtedly
start to be raised and that, perhaps, in time people might start to think about a
socialist alternative.

It may be that the scales are starting to tip back to the socialist economies...not just
from the effect of ‘globalises’ alone but any small yawn from nature, due to large
world population will increasingly create larger catastrophic situations which will seem
to spell the apocalypse. In that case, standing shoulder to shoulder in a threatened
situation is the only natural process unless we want to aid the demise of the
civilisation, as we know it. (p.2 [10])

In Pain of Globalisation, David Nderitu begins by considering the American
invasion of Iraq. America

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...decided to go it alone and attacked Iraq. After all it was armed with Skyhawks,
Tomahawks or any other sharp-eyed hawks like Dick Cheney... (p.1 [11])

Nderitu makes the point that during the Cold War between America and the
Soviet Union, many nations supported America, but now they feel betrayed.

He goes on to speak about the inequality and suffering that those in the
developing world suffer from in general, and says that:

The rich will have their way, while the poor will suffer what they must... (p.2[12] )

He then considers globalisation, once again, saying that it has not brought
prosperity to Africa. Instead, it has come to mean ‘...colonisation, poverty and
slavery redefined.’ When developing countries borrow money for capital
investments, to try to improve their situation, they find that the borrowing
terms are so severe that they are still further impoverished. Furthermore, that:

There is no limit for globalisation. Globalisation is a black hole for the poor
countries.. .globalisation means that which works fora few and disregards the
majority.

(P-3 [13])

Ruth Rikowski’s article in this issue is entitled Rethinking the ‘balance in
copyright’: 3 parts to the balance, not just one! Ruth argues that the library
and information profession literature and, indeed, the copyright literature in
general just focus on the main balance in copyright, whereas there are, in
fact, three parts to the balance, and not just one. Furthermore, that in order to
be able to fully grasp this notion of the ‘balance in copyright’ there is a need to
express this 3-dimentional process in the copyright literature.

Her examination of this topic led on directly from her work on the World Trade
Organisation’s agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property
Rights (TRIPS). Many different intellectual property rights are covered in
TRIPS, but it is the copyright and patent sections of TRIPS that are
particularly relevant for the library and information profession. Furthermore, it
is interesting to note that, as Ruth explains in her book Globalisation,
Information and Libraries, moral rights have been excluded from the copyright
section of TRIPS.

However, in regard to the balance in copyright, specifically, there is a need for
a 3-dimensional approach, Ruth says. Firstly, there is the main balance -
endeavouring to maintain a balance between the rights of creators of works
and copyright holders and the free flow of information of those works, but
there is also a need to maintain a balance for each half of the balance. Thus,
in regard to the rights of creators of works and copyright holders (the second
part of the balance) - there is a need to try to maintain a balance between
moral rights and economic rights, and there are 4 moral rights and 6
economic rights.. In regard to the free flow of information (the third part of the
balance), there is a need to try to maintain a balance in regard to various
aspects of this, such as free access to information, intellectual freedom,
freedom of expression and freedom of information. However, in order to
achieve any kind of balance it would become necessary to use some kind of

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

weighting system, Ruth suggests, but that in an ultimate sense, using any
such weighting system will be impossible. Ruth concludes by saying that:

.. .once we are into the complexities of weighting, it will then become apparent, I
suggest, that establishing any fair weighting scheme will be impossible, and that,
indeed, achieving the balance in copyright in any ultimate sense is actually
impossible. Let us, then, give further philosophical thought to the balance in copyright
issue, and clarify our thinking, (p.6 [p87])

As Ruth emphasises in her book, we need to move out of this mode of
thinking and terminology altogether, and instead use Marxist terminology and
concepts in order to understand the world that we live in today, with all its
complexities.

Using libraries in Nigeria as tools for education and national development in
the 21 st century, by Rose B. Okiy explores the place of education as an
instrument per excellence for national development and that of libraries as the
centre of academic excellence in educational institutions at all levels are
discussed. The unenviable state of the provision of library resources and
services in most libraries in Nigeria is considered. The 21st century being an
information society powered by information in all its ramifications, this article
advocates that libraries in the entire educational system in Nigeria be totally
overhauled so that they can be well stocked with up-to-date and relevant
books and other Information Communication Technology (ICT) facilities
prevalent in the electronic libraries of this 21st century. These being the kind
of libraries through which pupils and students can acquire the skills to access
and utilize information properly in their educational pursuits and hence
transfer such skills to decision making processes in their working life, and
nation building. Government is encouraged to provide adequate funds and
other necessary resources to equip all types of libraries in Nigeria so that they
can be used as effective tools for education and national development in
Nigeria in the 21st century.

Martyn Lowe considers another medium of popular culture in his article
Going to the Movies. As Martyn concludes “No movie can or should ever be
seen, except within its true social and historical context, and that is the point I
really wish to emphasise. For the rest there is just escapism and
entertainment. Now just what movie do I want to watch tonight?” Yet another
medium - documentaries - is the subject of Imperialism, Censorship and
Fascism by Fernando Buen Abad DomAnguez. As the title implies, there is
a direct link between imperialism, censorship and fascism: “Direct or indirect
censorship, whether ideological or economic, expresses the fascist parasitism
and degradation of Capitalism which, leaning on policemen of conscience
intends to keep watch over information, reality and ideas. Censorship puts
forward a civil war of meanings. Not having understood the economic roots of
Imperialism, without a profound diagnosis of its political and social
implications, and not considering censorship the worst enemy of the
documentary field, it is impossible to take even one step forward towards
solving the current practical tasks of the International Movement of
Documentarists.”

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Finally, we have a report of Ruth Rikowski’s book launch for her book,
Globalisation, Information and Libraries: the implications of the World Trade
Organisation’s GATS and TRIPS Agreements, and this was held at London
South Bank University on 26 th April 2005. Some 70 people attended and it
was introduced by Professor Deian Hopkin, the Vice-Chancellor at South
Bank. Ruth spoke about her book and how exciting it was - getting her first
book published. There were also 8 other speakers. Martha Spiess who has
worked with Indymedia Maine, and is the sister of Jim Grieshaber-Otto, who
co-authored the first book about the impact of the General Agreement on
Trade in Services on Canada’s public education system, came over from the
States specifically to video the launch. There is a report of the launch in this
issue, which has been compiled from information obtained from the DVD that
Martha Spiess made of the launch.

We also have a number of reviews on books about globalization and global
capitalism. A World to Win: a rough guide to a future without global capitalism
by Paul Feldman and Corinna Lotz is reviewed by John Pateman. The facts
and figures in this book give plenty of ammunition to campaigners who are
arguing for a more just world, politically, economically and environmentally.

But the Trotskyist political argument - that socialism in one country is not
possible and that the only solution is a world revolution - is not credible. John
Pateman also reviews Globalisation, Information and Libraries by Ruth
Rikowski. This clear and well written book not only explains the intricacies
and implications of the World Trade Organisation’s GATS and TRIPS
Agreements; it does so using an Open Marxist analysis. This book is also
reviewed by John Vincent who thinks that “Ruth is absolutely right in her
recognition of the dangers posed by the GATS and TRIPS, and has argued
persuasively about the problems posed by increasing commercialisation and
privatisation of libraries, of a ‘public good’.. Her Open Marxist analysis of the
issues - and her analysis of the work of the WTO and the threats of global
capitalism - are ground-breaking and extremely important... this is a book of
immense importance - and, at the same time, manages to be highly readable!
We should all read it - and think twice before looking at money-making
schemes!”

This is followed by two book reviews, on: E-book publishing services: how
anyone can write, compile and sell e-books on the Internet (by Kingsley
Oghojafor), and Helen Macfarlane: a feminist, revolutionary journalist and
philosopher in mid-nineteenth century England (by David Black) - both
reviewed by Ruth Rikowski. Helen Macfarlane was the first person to translate
Marx and Engels Communist Manifesto into English, and David Black in his
book, seeks to rescue her from obscurity.

We hope you enjoy reading ISC 21. We always welcome your thoughts and
contributions, so do feel free to contact us:

John Pateman - iohnpateman9@hotmail.com
Ruth Rikowski - rikowskiqr@aol.com

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

How Anyone Can Write, Compile and Sell (or give
away) E-books on the Internet

Kingsley Oghojafor

Would you want to have the title of 'author' added to your name without going
through the difficulty of book publishing? With the technology of e-books, you
can become a self published author with your e-book selling online and/or
offline.

E-books, as the name implies, are simply electronic books that can be
compiled with special software and read on a personal computer (PC), a
Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) or an electronic device designed specifically
for reading e-books (e-book reader).

The obvious difference between an e-book and a printed book is the fact that
printed books are physical while e-books are electronic. Both can contain the
same amount of information. In fact, e-books now have more advantages than
printed books.

According to Ken Silver:

.... once you have an e-book ready to sell, you immediately knock all other forms of
publishing out of the water.

E-book publishing is gradually taking over readers’ minds as a preferred way
of accessing information. There are presently more e-books being published
than has ever been the case. According to Open E-book Forum, a trade and
standards organisation dedicated to the promotion of electronic publishing,
there was a growth of 25 per cent for the third quarter of 2004 compared with
that of 2003. And with the development of more powerful handheld devices for
reading e-books, this is just the beginning for the growth of e-books.

Whether you are a Librarian who has vital information to share with your other
Librarians or an Information Professional who wants to sell what you know in
an e-book format, you can easily write and self-publish your own e-book.

To write and publish your own e-book, you don't have to bother about looking
for a publisher, cost of publishing, cost of packaging, cost of shipping, etc.

To self publish your own e-book you also don't need any special technological
expertise. You can self publish your e-book using completely free software
called e-book compilers and you can use the Internet to either sell the e-book
or give it away completely free to thousands or even millions of people easily.

The following are simple steps to writing your own e-book, whether to sell or
give away to thousands of people on the Internet:

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Find subjects to write that you are passionate about and that people are
searching:

The first step you need to take in writing your e-book is to look for subject to
write about that you are passionate about. This is the first determinant when it
comes to what to write about. In Ken Evoy's words:

Passion makes work fun and easy. What is it that you love to talk about? Read
about? A hobby? What do you do for fun and games? What do you do day after day,
without even thinking about it (example, child-rearing) - think about what you tend to
do in a typical day, and what you’ve learned from it. What section of a bookstore or
magazine shop do you automatically gravitate toward? What kind of television shows
do you tend to like most? Movies? (Harris & Evoy, 2000)

Everyone has a passion about something. What is yours? If you can discover
it and hone it, it will turn into an e-book that others will be willing to buy. What
you are passionate about you can easily and joyfully write about. While others
might look at it as work it will be fun for you because it is your passion. When
you love what you do, it becomes fun, not work.

The subject also has to be one that people will be interested in reading about.
To know the kinds of subject people will be interested in, you can use
Overture Search Tool'. http://www.EbookPublishingSuccess.com/overture.html

. This is a special tool that shows the number of searches people perform
every month on the search engines for certain keywords.

Simply open the URL and type in the subject you want to write about. If the
result shows that a lot of people are searching for the subject, then it is a good
subject to write about. But if not, this shows that people might not be very
interested in reading about the subject.

Before going ahead to write your ebook based on the subject you have
chosen, make sure people are searching for the subject.

You can also use Amazon.com to know the kinds of books that are best
sellers. The subject of these books will give you an idea of the subject to write
about that people will be interested in.

You can also use discussion groups and forums on the Internet, magazines,
newspapers, etc to know hot subjects that people will be interested in reading
about.

The book - E-book Publishing Success:

http://www.EbookPublishinqSuccess.com contains comprehensive guide on
how to find subjects to write about and also provides 71 subjects to choose
from.

Research the subject you want to write about:

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

You can research the subject to write about using your local library and the
Internet. Research will help you add more flesh to the subject and provide you
with more information in writing your e-book. You can also research the
subject by interviewing relevant people with expertise on the subject in
question.

Write your e-book:

You can use a simple word processing program like Microsoft Word or Word
Perfect to write your e-book. Write as much as you can about the subject
based on an outline. Initially, you should not bother about grammatical or
spelling mistakes until you have written volumes on the subject.

If you are not comfortable with writing with pen and paper or typing with a
computer, you can use a Voice Dictation Software like Dragon Naturally
Speaking: http://www.EbookPublishinqSuccess.com/draqon.html or
TalkltTypelt: http://www.EbookPublishinqSuccess.com/talkit.htm . These
software allow you to speak while they type what you say into the computer.

Prepare a cover for your e-book:

To give your e-book an attractive cover, you can use graphics to create a
visual representation. Since no one will be able to 'physically' behold your e-
book (unlike a printed book), the alternative is to create a cover for the e-book
that will give your readers the feeling of a real book.

You can prepare the e-book cover yourself if you know how to use software
like Adobe Image Styler or Adobe Photoshop. If not, you can hire professional
e-book cover designers like AbsoluteCovers.com, HyperCovers.com to design
the cover for you. You can also use a special software like ECover Generator:
http://www..ecoverqenarator.com to create your e-book cover automatically...
without any prior designing skills.

Compile your e-book:

When you are done with the writing, editing and proofreading of your e-book,
it is now time to compile it using either a HTML compiler or a PDF compiler.

To use HTML compilers you have to first convert your writing into HTML
(Hypertext Mark-up Language) format while to use PDF compilers you can
have the writing converted direct from text to PDF.

Free e-book compilers you can use:

There are e-book compilers you can buy and use to compile your e-book, but
you can also use the following free compilers:

Free HTML compiler software:

E-book Creator: http://www.ebookcreator.com/download.html

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E-book Creator is a paid e-book compiler but it gives you a demo version
completely free for you to test before buying. E-books created with this free
version work perfectly well and don't carry any advertisement or restrictions in
them. You could also distribute e-books created with this compiler without any
problems.

SbookBuilder: http://www.iansfreeware.eom/iftools.htm#sbookbuilder

This e-book compiler is a full featured free e-book compiler that you can use
to create your e-book.

Natata E-book Compier Free v2.1: http://natata.hn3.net

This is a free version of the Natata E-book compiler and it works very well,

with just a few restrictions.

Free PDF compilers

Like free HTML e-book compilers, you can compile your e-book into PDF
using free PDF compilers or services like the below:

Free PDF conversion from Adobe: http://createpdf.adobe.com
Adobe Acrobat can compile your e-book for free. This service is offered with
some restrictions. To use this free service, log onto the above link and click on
the page that says ‘Create Adobe PDF Online’.

Click on ‘free trial’, complete the short sign-up process, and Adobe will e-mail
you a sign-up confirmation. Upon activating your account, you can convert up
to five documents for free, though it may force you to split your documents
into smaller parts if converting the whole file will exceed the free service’s time
limit.

PDF995 Free conversion: http://www.pdf995.com

You can download and use the products of PDF995 to compile your e-book
into PDF. Visit their webiste for a free copy of their popular ‘PDF995’ software
suite. This collection of three software products allows you to create
professional quality PDFs quickly and easily.

PDFonline: http://www.pdfonline.com

Formerly known as goBCL.com, PDFonline provides quick and free document
conversion into both PDF and HTML formats. You don’t need to install
anything. As a web-based server solution, PDFonline allows you to
automatically convert documents from your Windows PC or your Macintosh
computer, from your home, your office

Sell or give away your e-book:

Now that you have compiled your ebook the next step is to make it available
for free or for sale (depending on what you want). If you decide to sell your e-
book on the Internet you will need a credit card processing company to
process your orders and automatically send the e-book to anyone that
orders... whether you are there or not.

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

A recommended credit card processing company that you can use to sell your
e-book is: ClickBank: http://www.ClickBank.com or PayPal:

http://www.paypal.com

If you don’t want the hassle of creating, marketing and selling your e-book
yourself, you can have it listed with e-book publishers and e-book stores.

They will then handle the entire process on your behalf and send you
commission cheques on copies of your e-book sold.

With this method, you don’t need your own website or payment account. You
don’t even need to concern yourself with Internet marketing.. The e-book
publishers or e-book stores that list e-book will handle everything for you.

You can submit your e-book either as completed PDF or HTML to the e-book
publisher and e-book stores, depending on their guidelines. You don’t need to
send printed manuscripts; neither do you need to concern yourself with
sending your e-book on disk. Most of them accept online submission or via e-
mail.

A few e-book publishers and e-book stores to list your ebook are:

1st Books: http://www. 1 stbooks.com
1 e-Books: http://www. 1 eBooks.com
3am Magazine: http://www.3ammaqazine.com
AGoodBook: http://www.aqoodbook.com
Alexandria Digital Literature: http://www.alexlit.com
AllStory: http://www.allstory.com
Apogee Publishing: http://www.apoqeepublishinq.com
Athina Publishing: http://www.athinapublishinq.com
AuthorLink Press: http://www.authorlink.com
Awe-Struck E-Books: http://www.awe-struck.net
Baen Books: http://www.baen.com
BookBooters: http://www.bookbooters.com

The book - Ebook Publishing Success:

http://www.EbookPublishinqSuccess.com contains comprehensive guide on
how selling your e-book yourself and contains exactly Sixty-five e-book
publishers and vendors to sell on your behalf.

If you would rather give your ebook away for free, you can submit it to e-book
directories. These directories get thousands of visits daily from people who
are looking for free e-books on various subjects. Below are a few e-book
directories to submit your free e-book or a demo version of your paid e-book:

Authors Den: http://www.authorsden.com
Mind Like Water: http://www.mindIikewater.com
Free e-Books Net: http://www.free-ebooks.net
e-Book Heaven: http://www.ebookheaven.co.uk
e-BooksNBytes: http://www.ebooksnbytes.com

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

e-Book Palace: http://www.ebookpalace.com
e-Book Directory: http://www.ebookdirectory.com
E-book Directory: http://www. .e-bookdirectory.com
e-Book Search Engine: http://www.ebooksearchenqine.com
e-Book Broadcast: http://www.ebookbroadcast.com

Market your paid or free e-book to millions of people:

You can use the Internet to get the word out about your e-book easier than
you would offline. Some of the ways you can market your e-book to millions of
people on the Internet include:

Write articles to promote your e-book

You can effectively write and submit free articles to promote your e-book on
the Internet. There are article directories that accept articles from relevant
writers. These articles are written to help readers and at the same time to help
the writers in promoting their businesses.

Note that to get the best result for writing and submitting your articles to article
directories you have to make sure your resource or bio box is well written and
includes your e-book's URL (the website link where your e-book is located).

Your resource or bio box can be:

Kingsley Oghojafor is the author of ‘E-book Publishing Success’.
Find out insider secrets to writing and publishing your own highly
profitably e-book: http://www.EbookPublishingSuccess. com

To ensure your article is a good one, make sure it:

« Is between 750-1000 words (especially for websites, e-zines and
announcement lists);
m is informative and useful to readers;

« is related to the topic of your e-book;
m is not a blatant ad for your e-book;

« doesn’t include too many irrelevant links;

« is devoid of grammatical and spelling mistakes;
m has an inviting resource box or signature file containing more
information about you and a link to your e-book’s website.

When your article is complete, you can use the Search Engines to look for
websites related to your subject that will accept your article. To get started,
search the Search Engines with the keywords "submit your article", "article
submission" etc.

Below are a few article directories to submit your articles:

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

1st in articles: http://www.. 1 st-in-articles.com

Addme: http://www.addme.com

Adswire: http://www.adswise.com

Advice galore: http://www.advicegalore.com

Advisor: http://www.advisor.com

Affiliates directory: http://www.affiliatesdirectory.com

AII4all: http://www.all-4-all.co.il .

All business: http://www.allbusiness.com

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Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Information Needed to Cope with Crisis in the Lives of
Individuals and Communities: An assessment of the
roles public libraries and voluntary sector agencies
play in the provision of such information

Zapopan Martin Muela Meza

Abstract

This article discusses the provision of community information services as a
means to help people in the communities to cope with their daily life needs
and issues. The two broader categories found are: survival information
(related to health, housing, income, legal protection, economic opportunity,
political rights, etc) and citizen action information (needed for an effective
participation of individuals and members of groups in the social, political,
legal, economic process). It analyses several roles public libraries and
voluntary sector agencies should play in the provision of such a service: 1)
roles with social responsibility, and social change; 2) roles to seek and foster
the welfare of the working classes, the disadvantaged, the poor, the needed
and the social excluded; 3) roles to alleviate and ameliorate all kinds of
inequalities in the society; 4) roles with a political and social commitment to
foster the values of democracy and respect for human rights such the right to
know, the right to be informed, the right to information access and so on; a
committment towards the liberation of information; 5) roles to seek for the free
of charge production, organization, and dissemination of the information; 6)
roles to promote community based research, like using the community
profiling tools with qualitative methods to gather accurate data and updating,
and monitoring the users needs in their real environment..

Keywords: Public libraries and voluntary sector information providers;
community information; community profiling of community issues and
information

needs; roles of librarians to help people cope with their daily life issues
through information.

Introduction

What is the information needed to cope with the crisis in the lives of
individuals and communities? Bunch explains, commenting on Joseph
Donohue:

“In this respect there is a remarkable degree of consensus, centering
around the idea of information needed to cope with what Joseph
Donohue terms ‘crisis in the lives of individuals and communities.’ The
same writer expands on this definition by identifying two types of
information provided by a community information service:

1. survival information such as that related to health, housing, income,
legal protection, economic opportunity, political rights, etc;

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

2 .citizen action information, needed for effective participation as
individual or as member of a group in the social, political, legal,
economic process.” (Bunch, A., 1982: 2).

Thus, the working definition of this essay is the one by Donohue as enhanced
by Bunch above. This paper is rather laconic in its form, but at the same time
analytical and critical in its content.

As for the roles public libraries and voluntary sector agencies play in the
provision of such services, these are centered on these general axes:

1. Roles with social responsibility, and social change
2 . Roles to seek and foster the welfare of the working classes, the
disadvantaged, the poor, the needed and the social excluded

3. Roles to alleviate and ameliorate all kinds of inequalities in the society

4. Roles with a political and social commitment to foster the values of
democracy and respect for human rights such the right to know, the right to be
informed, the right to information access and so on; a committment towards
the liberation of information;

5. Roles to seek for the free of charge production, organization, and
dissemination of the information

6. Roles to promote community based research, like using the community
profiling methodologies to gather accurate data and updating, and monitoring
the users needs in their real environment.

Discussion and assessment of the roles librarians and information
workers should play

1. Roles with social responsibility and commitment for social change

Being mentioned that Bunch is the classic work underpinning this footnote
about community information, he explains what it means to have a social
responsibility and be committed to social change through the servicing people
with information and help to cope with daily lives crisis:

“Since the sixties, a growing number of librarians who have recognized
the need for the library to forge new links with the community and to
redefine its purpose as an agent for social change. They have seen the
library

1. As accepting ‘responsibility for the informational life-support needs of
all people in a complex multicultural society’

2. Alerting the community to needs for which either resources have not
been mobilized though they exist in the community, or where there is
an absence of resources

3. Playing an acting role in community development or even fostering a
community spirit.” (Bunch, A. 1982: 12).

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

2. Roles to seek and foster the welfare of the working classes, the
disadvantaged, the poor, the needy and the social excluded.

Some librarians or information workers might feel uneasy with trying to play
these roles in their working milieus. But many commentators have criticized
that even nowadays libraries and voluntary sector agencies play a very
downsizing, discriminatory and socially excluding roles (Black, A. and
Muddiman, D., 1997; Schiller, H.L, 1996; Bunch, A., 1982; Martin, B., 1998;
Amoros i Fontanals, J. et. al., 2000; Lozano, R., 2004; Omella i Claporols, E.,
2003; Suaiden, E.J. , 2003; Muddiman, D., 2000; Webster, F., 2002; Muela
Meza, Z.M., 2004 and some others).

Therefore, the librarians and information workers should play a proactive,
effective and efficient role when servicing information and help seekers with a
commitment or sympathy in providing welfare and true, honest, felt, sensitive
help, advice, and information. Also, more friendship and understanding and
support than the information or the help per se to the information and help
seekers, and having solidarity with bad luck or fate of the working classes, the
needed, the disadvantaged and the socially excluded and divided from
society.

Another group of society deeply marginalized from the mainstream of social
services are the handicapped individuals. For everyone, but especially for
them, having a handicap, for these individuals their sole existence is a daily
martyrdom, not only a crisis, an eternal crisis they have to live with it for the
rest of their days. Are the librarians and information workers from public
libraries and voluntary sector agencies aware of these people? Are they
prepared well enough to serve them well? Are they sensitive enough to serve
them with a human touch?

For a US librarian, Ruth A. Velleman, in 1979, access to these marginalized
groups is more than access to information or help to cope with this or that
eventual crisis:

“Access has become the word that characterizes this phenomenon—
access to education, employment, housing, and recreation, access to
the right to live with dignity with some measure of independence,
whether or not employment is feasible. For all people the quality of life
is more important goal, not its length or its economic productivity.”
(Velleman, R.A., 1979: 53).

Quite some years have passed since then, but Velleman was right about
remarking upon the quality of life. Keith C. Wright, another US librarian, from
the same year argued this:

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

“Given the maze of information sources, publications, research studies,
local ordinances, federal regulations, and public laws, libraries have the
responsibility to provide guides through this information maze.
Becoming knowledgeable about other community service and
information functions and providing coordination or information referral
services will certainly change the role of the librarian. There is obvious
need for cooperation with a wide variety of the community and
government agencies as well with professional groups.” (Wright, K.C.,
1979: 130).

As for servicing the ethnic minorities, The Commission for Racial Equality
from the UK since the 1970s has issued policies to ensure asylum seekers
and foreign minorities just arrived to the UK be served well (Commission for
Racial Equality, 1977). The most comprehensive work reviewed in the
literature dealing with all kinds of excluded people in society is the work by
Muddiman. (Muddiman, D. et. al., 2000).

Thus, some might disagree to try to adapt a point of view of the people being
served, specially this point of view, that is “to put oneself in the shoes of the
user” and try to interiorize his or her despair into oneself, and try for one
moment to feel what it is like to be homeless, unemployed, handicapped, or
as an asylum seeker just arrived to a new country, poor, alienated, etc. Those
are the roles challenging librarians and information workers to take in order to
serve people in a better fashion.

And still, there is still more to do. The people who supposedly are more
information literate, middle upper class, even they also need the kind and
warm service. There is a very sad tragedy that illustrates this well. In
Sheffield, UK, the past 28 July 2003 a man committed suicide because he
had 19 credit cards, some of them with the same bank, he earned only
£22,000.00 a month and he owed a debt of £70, 000.00 to the banks. The
banks hounded him to pay the cards, by letter, by telephone, by visits, etc. He
spent more than he could pay and he even withdrew money from some of the
cards to make even the minimum month payments. He could not stand the
pressure and hung himself. (Arnold, A., 2004; The Star Sheffield City Final,
2004). So, what is the lesson this tragedy shows to librarians and information
workers? Would the community information services have saved his life if they
were more proactive in providing financial information as to cope with credit
debt crisis?

This is a social problem and has many aristae, and it is open to many different
interpretations. It shows, on one hand, that the banking system in capitalism is
simply moved by a greedy thirst to obtain the most profits from the people and
that it surely does not care at all for their welfare. The banks lent this poor
victim without any control or regulation that much amount of credit he would
never pay his mortgage, even if he worked 24 hours for 100 years or more.

On the other hand, it shows too, not quite differently from the critiques from
1979, that librarians and information workers might still be playing a deeply
reactive role to learn about their communities so as to serve them pertinently,

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

effectively and efficiently. Certainly, as explained in another section, this is not
an isolated problem. If libraries and voluntary organizations do not have
funding, then that is a government’s problem which does not care enough for
the welfare of the individuals of society, and that is a major problem. Still,
librarians and information workers must be committed to playing a leading and
proactive role and get the solutions for the people before the problems
appear.

3. Roles to alleviate and ameliorate all kinds of inequalities in the society

Social inequalities in general are caused because of the way life is organized,
where the social wealth and good is not equally distributed and enjoyed by all
members of society. Therefore, inequalities of many different kinds exist. As
for information, there is information inequalities.

To this matter a U.S. sociologist and critic from the school of Critical Theory,
Herbert Schiller, stated in his book Information inequality: the deepening of
the social crisis in America:

“In truth, public services, by definition, mean everyone in the society
benefits from their provision, often in indirect ways, totally outside the
reach of calculation. Similarly, everyone suffers if these services are
either limited to certain groups or denied altogether.. When these
services are stripped of their social character, privatized, and put on an
individual ability-to-pay basis, the common good is grievously
wounded. Along with the inevitable inequity that accompanies ability-to-
pay standards comes a further weakening of the social organism. The
more contractual arrangements enfold the lives of people, the less
cohesiveness there is in the community.” (Schiller, H.I., 1996: xv).

Another commentator strongly argued that library and information workers in
general do not tend to be theory driven, but that they instead are more
practical or pragmatic (Muela Meza, Z.M., 2004). And if they in general are
not very fond of theories, and are rather fond of practical matters, and if in the
way they approach those matters has a hollow or empty commitment towards
playing a leading role as to try as much as they can to alleviate social
inequalities, then the services rendered in libraries and voluntary agencies
would definitively be severely influenced by this lack of social commitment.

4. Roles with a political and social commitment to foster the values of
democracy and respect for human rights such the right to know, the
right to be informed, the right to information access and so on; a
commitment towards the liberation of information.

The world at large as for the provision of information services for the people
who need it to improve their lives or cope their daily living problems has
historically been driven by two antagonistic forces: those towards a full, open,

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

accountable and transparent society as far as in information goes, and the
others towards secret, corruption and hindering society. So far society has
reached 7, 000 years of informational recorded history whichever the
encryption material those records are engraved or printed. But the history of
society as for its openness or closeness, definitively is the history of the last
one. The informational closeness of society is a very old dinosaur, and as a
taxidermist informational cadaver it has lasted for about 1690 years. The
informational openness of society is on big strokes like an infant taking its first
steps in life; it has about 10 years or 20 or so.

Librarians and information workers cannot take a proactive, effective and
efficient role with a political and social commitment if they do not take into
consideration this historical issue. There was research regarding intellectual
freedom and legislation of information access to public and government
records and documents (FOIA) and from the most industrialized countries
these were the years they issued a FOIA: USA in 1966, France in 1978,
Canada in 1983, Germany between 1998 and 1999, Japan in 1999, UK in
2000. (Muela Meza, Z.M., 2001). That is, even the self called exemplary
countries, pattern and role model for the world’s development, their
governments entered to the spiral of the informational openness,
accountability, and transparency in average in 1988. From the non highly
developed countries Muela Meza found Sweden with a FOIA since 1766, but
that was the only isolated country and fact which does not count much against
this 1988 average year; infancy of the road of society towards the full
informational openness, accountability and transparency of all of its members,
specially from most corruptible as the governments.

Carl Sagan, US biologist, astronomer and critic, criticized that closeness and
secrecy of society from all ages in his book The Haunted-Demon World:
Science as Candle in the Darkness:

“Secret with very few exceptions, it is profoundly incompatible with
democracy and science. [...] Tyrans and autocrats have always
understood that literacy, knowledge, books and newspapers are a
latent danger. They could promote ideas of independence, even of
rebellion in the heads of their governed ones. (Sagan, C., 1997: 109,
390).

Accordingly with Sagan as for the secret informational still dominant society, a
mathematician and social scientist from Australia, Brian Martin in his ad hoc
book Information liberation: Challenging the corruptions of information power,
went even long way beyond Sagan and he even argued that FOI is a limited
concept or inadequate for our current period of history and proposed the
concept of information liberation instead of freedom of information. He said:

“In order to bring about a more just and equal society, struggles need
to be waged over information. It would be nice to call the goal "freedom
of information." Unfortunately, that phrase is already taken over by
legislation that is supposed to allow citizens access to government
documents. FOI legislation has not been very successful in opening up

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

government to public scrutiny. Politicians and government bureaucrats
have restricted access in various ways, including charging fees that
make a mockery of the name "freedom of information." Even if FOI
worked perfectly, it is a very limited freedom, since it does nothing
about corporate secrecy, defamation law, surveillance and ownership
of information..” (Martin, B. 1998: 172).

For the US reality Schiller argued in the same way as Martin but 2 years
before:

“The capability of Americans to begin to undertake the far-reaching
transformational tasks that are literally imperative to national
sustainability depends to a very large extent on the adequacy and
openness of the informational system.” (Schiller, H.I., 1996: xvi).

Thus, both Schiller and Martin challenge the informational system as a whole
Then the roles for the librarians and information workers are to acknowledge
these historical and political issues, and to take a strong and firm position to
challenge the information power. Muela Meza (2004) also takes a political
position when making an analysis of the political challenges of the so called
information society.

Muela Meza (2001) argued that having the right to information in the FOIAs
does not mean that people have the right to access actually the information,
because it might be legislated so well, but if the informational system is not
backed with professional and trained staff, then access would be denied or
hampered somehow. Usherwood went even further promoting librarians and
information workers to take political action to the benefit of the information
seekers:

“For those in need, access to information by itself is often not enough
to solve a person’s problems. Very often the information has to be
linked to action and this require the involvement of a variety of
community groups, self help organizations and the like.” (Usherwood:
1992:30-31)

5. Roles to seek for the free of charge production, organization, and
dissemination of the information.

Librarians and information workers, as any other professionals, have always
to struggle to get funding to serve their users with community and local
information. Some critics explain that with the advent of the mass media
termed “information society” rather than a real societal change, more and
more of the organization of society is changing towards an informational
society; to an informational society driven by the commoditization of
information. One of the strongest critiques comes from Schiller:

“The spectacularly improved means of producing, organizing, and
disseminating information has transformed industrial, political, and

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

cultural practices and processes. Manufacturing, elections, and
creative efforts are increasingly dependent on informational inputs.
This has conferred great value on some categories of information. The
production and sale of information have become major sites of profit
making. What had been in large measure a social good has been
transformed into a commodity for sale.” (Schiller, H.I., 1996: 46).

In a capitalist society where the production and exchange of commodities is
the skeleton of its organization, the charged or free of charge issue in the
provision of social services as the ones for the community, will always be on
discussion. One thing is true for this analysis, the more the market forces
commoditize the informational production, organization and use in libraries or
voluntary sector agency, the more that will affect the common good. But as
just mentioned, this issue has many aristae.

But he also states:

“Many librarians resist this direction and work valiantly, sometimes
successfully, in the democratic tradition, defending the general social
good.” (Schiller, 1996: 37).

6. Roles to promote community based research, like using community
profiles or analysis to gather accurate data and updating, and
monitoring the users needs in their real environment

Part of the main issues intending to expand the work of the remarkable
predecessors on this subject, has to do with the methodological issues.

This essay promotes those methodologies which lead the librarians and
information workers both in the public libraries or voluntary agencies or from
elsewhere, to use methodologies rooted in the community to bring about
information based on the real community.

For example, to assess how important is the solid marriage or aggressive
divorce of librarians and information workers with their users within their
communities; the closer or the more distant service providers and service
seekers are from one another, is an issue of giant importance. In one study
carried on in London, Ontario, Canada, to assess how women abused by their
husbands or couples searched for help and information, there was found that
from 105 women participating in the study, just one sole woman went to the
library to find help or information to cope with her severe crisis. (Harris, R.. et.
al. 2001: 135). In the same study it was also found several factors that
discourage abused women for a successful help and information seeking:

m “help and information seekers cannot find the service they need
because it does not exist where they live;

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

« help and information seekers do not know which agency to contact;

« help and information seekers who succeeded in reaching appropriate
service agencies encounter obstacles that are deliberately or
inadvertently constructed by the agencies;

« help seekers fail to receive assistance because the services they
contact are not adequately funded or staffed.” (Harris, R. et. al., 2001:
127).

It then becomes evidently obvious from this study that the service providers
are not adapted -in this context- to meet a vast and ever crescendo myriad
of services to satisfy every need of users. Unlike regular or normal library
services as defined in the introduction by Donohue, the success of the
community services can only be measured against the actual happily
successful and complete satisfaction of the users. If this complete satisfaction
cannot be such, then something is wrong with the service.

In general most of the commentators from the literature review argue about
the evaluation of service provision focusing more on the service providers or
the service seeking, but they miss to add the social and political issues behind
the institutions providing those services. It can be fairly easy to assess that
the service seeker may succeed or fail to get the right service, in the right
time, at the right service provider, as it can be assessed otherwise. The same
can be said about the service providers. In this case, the successful or
unfruitful provision of service has strongly to do with the reactive or proactive
position the providers take. If it is only reactive, then it can be surely be
inferred that the quality of the service provision will be bad. But in order to be
proactive they need to assess the community needs and serve them
accordingly. But as for the social and political issues behind those service
providers institutions, things are more complicated and cannot easily be
assessed. This is so, because this has to do with broader issues like the
political system of a nation, or a region or a locality, or the economic
production mode i.e. like capitalism itself. And these are beyond the scope of
this essay, nevertheless they are strong barriers as explained by Harris.
Muddiman criticizes this issue in this way:

“What this suggests, of course, is that the library service as currently
configured comprises a service model that effectively shuns perhaps a
majority of working class and other disadvantaged people.”

(Muddiman, D„ 2000: 183).

As for the methodologies proposed in this essay.

To assess thoroughly the environment of the community as to be able to
collect, and organize the heartbeat or pulse of the community at its very core
of its community, and to facilitate service providers give a proactive, effective
and efficient service to users, several community research methodologies are
necessary.

Usherwood, in the British reality, combined the use of the methodology
profiling as to survey, profile and analysis the conditions of the community and

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

adapt community information services to their profile. (Usherwood, B., 1992:
34). Who have developed this methodology per se in a deepest fashion is
Beal, there in Britain too. (Beal, C. 1976; 1985). Others who have used this
methodology in the British reality are: Backhouse, R. (1986); Manzi, S. (1993).

In the US Sarling, J. H. & Van Tassel, D.S. (1999) have a sound study on
community profiling where they call it there community analysis. In Spain
Amoros i Fontanals, J., Ontalba y Ruiperez, J.A. and Perez i Salmeron, G.P.
(2000), Omella i Claparols, E. (2003), Rodriguez Parada, C. (2002) and
Lozano, R. (2004) have made deep studies assessing the community
information services as well as the local information as they also typify this
service as to be bounded to municipal or local authorities strategic plans,
strongly supported by community profiling. The same has done as well
Suaiden, E.J. (2003) in Brazil.

On the other hand, librarians and information workers should pay close
attention to the theories and methodologies focusing on the research,
evaluation and assessment of social needs. For this purpose, the works by
Ann Glampson, Tony Scott and David N. Thomas in their study A guide to the
assessment of community needs and resources (1975) and by Jim Macbeth
and Dave Hitchens, A Report on community information needs (1977) are two
hallmark works to understand the sociological background and LIS applied on
the understanding social needs.

Thus, combining the methodologies of community profiling and assessment of
the social needs or the needs of the community, one obtains a thorough
understanding of the heartbeat and pulse of the community. Nonetheless, the
researchers must be critical enough to challenge the government and ask for
the government to provide community, what the community needs, not what
the government says is available to them, no matter if reactively or
proactively, but the needs must be assessed and met before hand or when
the requests, and problems arrive. Muddiman is very critical on this issue on
developing a very critical assessment of community and individuals' needs
(Muddiman, D., 2000: 185).

Conclusion

In general words, in order to provide services to information and help seekers
from the community, for them to cope with their daily, or minute to minute,
crisis and despairs and hopelessness of this challenging world, librarians and
information workers must take leading roles, be proactive, socially and
politically involved in the flesh and blood of the people who are meant to
serve, not just the elitist ones who may be information savvy, but all those
immense majorities who might never ever approach a library or advice centre
and not even closer.

Muddiman (2000: 186) suggests some other methodologies to assess better
and in a cross related fashion. He suggests the “needs auditing” or
“community auditing” with these elements:

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

« conventional market research where users are seen as consumers of
public services -a caveat word is that in this essay is proposed a free
of charge services at all times;

m more interactive consultation processes such as focus groups and
consultative panels, which involve users, non users and service staff;
m both individual and community profiling and needs assessment -
already assesed;

« measurement and evaluation of effectiveness of services;
m input from politicians and other community representatives.

Finally, librarians and information workers, in order to serve well, pertinently,
effectively and efficiently must include in their job descriptions the flagship
duties of going out to the streets. They need to walk and stroll around the
community veins and arteries and be a nice welcome guest carrying their
hemoglobin and oxygen. They need this in order to cope with their daily and
second to second life crisis, to help them always reach their best quality of life
and never be left out by them as that gentleman who took his life away did for
not being information, and financially literate. Suaiden (2003: 381) also shows
a story of social sadness and pain about Silvana, a prostitute who died at the
age of 17 years in Brazil of AIDS. She was severely criticized before her
death because she blamed the government and the public library because no
body told her what a condom was for. Librarians and most other people
‘looked down their noses’ at her and downsized her, rather then trying to help
her with all the crises that led her to prostitution, after being abandoned at the
age of 5 years before a Cathedral frontispiece.

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Information for Social Change - Issue 21

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Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Breaking Barriers: Libraries and Socially Excluded
Communities

By Annette DeFaveri

When we talk about barriers to library use the allusion is to a wall. When we
talk about breaking barriers the allusion is to a crumbling wall. But what keeps
socially excluded people from using the library is not a physical barrier broken
by a single well-placed hammer blow. The barriers are more subtle and
insidious, and are ingrained in library culture. And they are most formidable
for society's socially excluded groups. For every person who finds the library
safe and pleasant there is another person who feels uncomfortable and
unwelcome. This is a hard truth to accept, especially for people who see the
library as one of society's truly accessible and democratic institutions.
Identifying the barriers that keep socially excluded groups from using the
library, understanding why the barriers exist, and finding ways to overcome
the barriers is an iterative and generative process.

When the director of a local youth center was asked why the teens did not feel
welcome at the library he replied, "Because they are not welcome." Teen
behaviour, including loud conversations, overt displays of hormone-charged
sexuality, and demanding yet sullen exchanges with adults make library staff
uncomfortable, and they in turn attempt to restrict and regulate the teen's
behaviour. The issue, he explained, is that teens are not going to change, so
if the library is interested in welcoming teens it will have to change.

The coordinator of a family refugee service was asked why newcomers did
not attend library events or make use of free library resources. She said that
the library's inherent cultural expectations regarding group behaviour were
alienating for newcomers. In many cultures gatherings are times for
discussions and socializing. Library gatherings are more formal and often
have a classroom style and feel to them that discourages conversation and
interaction, except with the librarian. This approach presents the librarian as
an authority figure who judges a newcomer's ability to assimilate, and who
has the power and position to disapprove of a newcomer's behaviour.

Feelings of inferiority and “otherness” result, and are transferred from the
librarian to the library.

Feeling unwelcome and alienated from the library is not limited to society's
most marginalized groups. For many working class adults the library is as
foreign an institution as a university or museum. Even relatively well-off
working class people may not have a tradition of library use and so may feel
that their lives, their values, and their concerns are not reflected in the culture
of the library. What they do feel is the library's culture of authority and
deference. The library is not seen as an organization that facilitates the
acquisition of information or one that promotes life long learning. For them the
library's culture mystifies information and the process of acquiring information.
The Working Together project talked with community members who do not
use the library. Reasons for not using the library include:

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« Reading is hard. You have to be a good reader to use the library.

« Feeling as if the library is a club and I'm not a member of the club.

« Feeling as if the library is like school and school is hard and not much
fun.

« Believing that the library has good things, but feels too stupid to find
them or ask for help.

« Afraid of asking the wrong question, or asking the wrong person the
wrong question.

« Believing that the library is only for smart people.

« Feeling stupid at the library.

« Not understanding how the library works.

« Afraid to go in and ask for something in case it is something that
everyone else knows how to find.

« Believing that the library is about books and do not read too many
books.

How do we make the library a more welcoming and inclusive place for all
community members? One way is to emphasize the importance of the
library's initial contact with new patrons. On-line registration works well for
people who are confident with technology. But for people who feel intimidated
by automated services, and who have difficulty articulating their needs, even
filling out a paper application can be isolating and discouraging. Welcoming
new patrons and making them comfortable in the library should be the jewel in
the service model crown. Librarians could register new patrons in person and
take this opportunity to talk about the patron's reasons for coming in to the
library, to ask if other family members need cards, and give a tour of the
branch resources.. This strategy personalizes the library and makes it
immediately relevant in the life of the new user. The library has been
described as the living room of the community. But to be sure it is a hospitable
living room the hosts must work to welcome their guests and see to their
needs.

Another simple but significant step is having patrons sit beside the librarian,
rather than across the desk. Looking for information becomes a collaborative
effort that demystifies the searching process. Working side by side with a
patron highlights the library's teaching and instructional role without
emphasizing the differences between those who know how the library
functions and those who have difficulty using the library. A significant barrier
to library use by socially excluded people is the need to feel comfortable with
the library as a community space before feeling comfortable with the library as
a community resource. Patrons must be and feel included in the ongoing and
everyday activities of the library. It is not enough to tell socially excluded
groups that the library has significant resources freely available to them. Nor
is it enough to tell them that the library is a supportive and respectful
organization.

Socially excluded people know that what an organization claims it will do, and
what it actually does, can be very different things, and that this difference
rarely works in their favour. In his radio play "Dead Dog Cafe" Tom King
illustrates this dichotomy by telling the story of two First Nations people who,

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on Halloween, go trick or treating as the scariest people they know - a social
worker and a priest.

Poverty, mental and physical illnesses, limited education and refugee status
are just some of the conditions that shape the lives of socially excluded
people and inform their perceptions of community services. Each of these
conditions can engender suspicion of authority, isolation, and non¬
participation. Often these conditions are reinforced by degrading and
alienating encounters with other institutional community agencies. It is easy
and common to include libraries with other authoritarian, alienating, and
excluding community organizations. As a result socially excluded people are
often unwilling to enter a library and unlikely to use its resources.

The library needs to demonstrate that is a respectful and inclusive
organization before it can convince socially excluded groups that it offers
collections, services, and programs that can enrich and empower their lives.
This was the situation that the Working Together project faced with LOVE
(Leave Out Violence), a community group that supports young adults who are
the witnesses, victims and perpetrators of violence.

The young adults who attend the LOVE Leadership class knew about many of
the programs and services the library offers, but were not using them. Talking
with the Leadership class revealed that they associated the library with
school, which was often hostile and isolating. They felt that, like their schools,
the library was an authoritarian institution imposing its values and behavioural
norms on them. The challenge for the Working Together project was to show
LOVE young adults that the library is an inclusive and respectful organization
that strives to represent and include all community members.

To do this LOVE young adults were invited to hold their graduation ceremony
at the library. The library also hosted an evening of readings by LOVE
members and installed LOVEs original photographs in the Moat Gallery for
the first two weeks of 2005. Once the young adults felt comfortable in the
library, once they believed that they were part of the community entitled to use
the library, the library could offer access to its collections, programs, and
services.

By first becoming an inclusive community space the library is able to
encourage socially excluded people to explore its diverse resources. And by
using the library's resources, socially excluded people are more likely to
enrich and empower their lives. As they begin to enrich and empower their
lives they are more likely to participate in the community and become active,
able citizens.

One suggestion for promoting the library as an inclusive community space is
to create a programming series and template that facilitates the use of library
space for community programs that may not have an obvious or immediate
connection to the library's collections and services.. Developing such a series
creates an opportunity for promoting other library programs, services, and
collections to those community groups it does not normally reach.

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Another suggestion is to establish book clubs that meet in community
buildings such as neighbourhood houses and focus on the clientele of the
neighbourhood organization. Unlike the traditional book club, the off-site club
would begin with the librarian reading aloud to members. As the club evolves,
and as members become comfortable with each other, club members might
choose to read aloud as well. When members are comfortable together the
club could hold sessions at the library. This approach allows the library to
build relationships with people in environments that are comfortable for them
and to then expand the relationship to include the library and library
resources.

The library could also facilitate regular library programming at non traditional
locations. Many authors volunteer to read at the library and could be
sponsored to read at other community meeting places or events. For
example, a children's author could read at the annual general meeting of a
local day care organization or at a community dinner night at a neighbourhood
church. A librarian or library staff member could accompany the author and
promote library services and other programs being held at the library.

Community parks can play an important role in introducing the library to non¬
users. A Summer Reading Club event could be held in a park and parents
could be encouraged to attend with a picnic lunch. The event could be
promoted through neighbourhood service agencies. Parents who might be
hesitant to go to the local library would have an opportunity to become familiar
with library personnel and to join in a library activity. Comfort and enjoyment
at one library event will encourage participation in other library events. And
parents, through their children, will have an opportunity to feel welcome and
included in the cultural life of the local library.

When introducing new approaches to making the library an inclusive
community space it is important to emphasize to staff the philosophical and
practical reasons for doing so. Encouraging community inclusiveness should
be promoted to staff as an added skill rather than an added duty. To
accomplish this staff needs to understand the advantages to bringing new
users to the library and how this is a reflection of the library's core mission and
values, and is not an extracurricular activity.

Fines, replacement costs and processing fees are affordable for the middle
classes, but represent significant and often overwhelming costs for poor
people. As a result, poor patrons with fines over $10.00 who cannot pay the
fines are excluded from accessing library resources. This barrier to library use
has short and long-term consequences for the library and the community it
serves.

In one instance, a mother with her three young children explains that coffee
accidentally spilled on the picture book while she was reading to her youngest
daughter. Her daughter was excited and knocked the cup out of her hand.

The clerk takes the picture book, opens it, examines the pages and points out
the damaged areas to the mother. "We have to charge you for this, you know,

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

we can't repair it. We will have to order another copy and when we reorder
there is a processing charge as well."

The mother again explains that this was an accident, and adds that she can't
afford to pay for the book. The clerk takes the book to the librarian at the
reference desk, where the book is again examined and the book's circulation
statistics are checked. The librarian and clerk discuss publicly the best course
of action: perhaps waive the processing fee, perhaps talk to the patron about
a payment plan, or perhaps negotiate a one-time payment of half the price of
the book.

And while this is happening, the mother waits at the checkout desk. Her
embarrassment is visible to everyone in the area. Her face is flushed, and she
has gathered her three children close to her. Her eyes don't lift from the
counter top. She is quiet and still. When the clerk returns and discusses
payment options the mother says again that she cannot afford to pay for the
book.

And so, while this mother should be applauded for bringing her children to the
library and encouraged to continue reading to her children, she is instead
publicly humiliated and made to confess over and over that she cannot afford
to pay for the picture book. Will this family be comfortable returning to the
library?

If the library does not charge for the damaged book, it loses about $25..00.
When the library fails to recognize situations where charging replacement
costs means losing library patrons, it loses the opportunity to participate in the
life of the patron and the patron's family. By choosing to make a $25.00
replacement cost more significant than the role the institution can play in the
social, developmental, and community life of the family, the library forfeits its
role as a community and literacy advocate and leader.

It will cost the library more than $25.00 to convince this mother to return to the
library. It will cost the library more than $25.00 to persuade this mother that
the library is a welcoming community place willing to meet her needs and
support her family. It will cost the library more than $25.00 to mount literacy
programs aimed at her children, who will not benefit from regular library visits
and programs. And when these children are adults, it will cost the library more
than $25.00 to convince them that the library is a welcoming and supportive
place for their children.

In "Save the Libraries!" (Educational Leadership, March 2004, p. 83) Susan B.
Neuman and Donna Celano discuss their interviews with low-income families
and reveal that even if these families had library cards they would be reluctant
to check out books because they feared the possibility of overdue fines.
Library fines represent such an enormous portion of a poor person's monthly
income that fines can be impossible to pay off.

It is important to understand that incurring library fines does not always, or
even often, mean a disregard for library materials or disrespect for other
library patrons. The lives of poor and socially excluded people are often

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

complicated by mental and physical disabilities, lack of education, chronic
unemployment, debilitating disease, addiction and social prejudices. All of
these conditions can affect a person's ability to return materials on time.

Daniel is a member of the Coast Clubhouse, an organization that supports
individuals recovering from mental illnesses and who might not have the
family or economic resources to facilitate their recovery. When the Working
Together project offered Coast members a chance to have their library card
records reviewed, Daniel brought his card and his story to the session. He
hadn't been able to pay his fines because of "some trouble with getting work,
and other problems." He had borrowed 5 magazines and returned them late.
The fines totalled $40.00. He hadn't been able to save enough money to pay
the fines, but was anxious to use the library again as he enjoyed reading.

Daniel's fines were from 1994, and though he still carried his card with him, he
had not used the library since then. What does this cost the library? What
price has Daniel paid? Perhaps it is time to consider that library circulation
policies can be ineffective at the circulation desk level. Policies designed to
empower staff become ambiguous when they are not supported by
introductory and ongoing training.

Circulation policies direct clerical staff to make subjective decisions about a
patron's ability to pay fines, replacements costs, and processing fees without
adequately identifying the criteria for making the decisions. As a result, clerks
might rely on feelings of sympathy or on a desire to end an altercation with a
difficult patron as a reason to waive fines. Alternatively, fines might not be
waived if a clerk does not feel sympathy for a patron, or feels that a difficult
patron should be made to pay fines because of his behaviour and not
because of extenuating circumstances. Staff members are encouraged to
make independent decisions but are open to criticism and correction from
their supervisors and branch heads. This ambiguity can force clerks to stick
to "the letter of the law," or to always refer the situation to a supervisor. It
encourages inconsistencies based on staff biases and prejudices. It fails to
educate staff to the reasons for waiving fines in poor, socially excluded
communities. If circulation policies worked as they are intended to work,

Daniel would not have had to wait ten years to use his library card.

Recognizing the real costs to patrons and to society when access to the
library's resources are restricted by fines, replacement costs, and processing
fees, can encourage library systems to explore innovative and progressive
solutions to the current challenge. One suggestion is to approach the Friends
of the Library, or another civic-minded group, for funding to cover the fines, or
a percentage of the fines, incurred by individuals living in poor
neighbourhoods. While this suggestion may alleviate some fiscal issues, it
does not address the systemic problem of training staff to identify, know, and
understand the socially excluded people in the communities they serve. This
approach also fails to acknowledge the library's social responsibility to provide
equal access to information to all community members, regardless of income
level.

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Another approach is to separate the issue into manageable parts. For
example, consider removing replacement costs and processing fees from
children's cards. If this proves expensive the Friends of the Library or another
community group could be approached for support. By recognizing that poor
families cannot pay replacement costs and processing fees the library breaks
the barrier that keeps many families from using the library on a regular basis.
And breaking this barrier promotes sustainable relationships between the
library and families in the community.

The library can examine the borrowing habits of teens and consider making
teens exempt from library fines. Fines keep teens out of the library. Few teens
are financially independent and so library fines can be as daunting for them as
for other socially excluded groups. And like other socially excluded groups
teens that have the least, need the library the most. Omitting fines will
encourage ongoing library use throughout teenage years and will promote a
habit of library use that will be carried into adulthood.

Circulation policies have a profound effect on people who are homeless.
Without proof of a permanent address the library will not issue a library card.
Without a library card many poor and socially excluded people feel as if they
do not "belong" to the library and will not even enter the building to use onsite
resources. Vancouver's Carnegie Branch issues a special card that gives
community members access to branch material but does not give access to
all the system's collections and resources. While this is a valuable
intermediary step it is still a discriminatory one. Access to all the library's
resources should not be withheld because a person or family is too poor to
afford housing.

While there are ever increasing numbers of homeless people in this country
the experience of one family in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood can help
the library understand how important it is to issue library cards to all
community members. This family of five lives in their car. They do not have
library cards. The three school age daughters do their homework in the
backseat of the car or in one of the community's many Laundromats. The
parents want to stay in the Mount Pleasant area because they recognize the
importance of keeping their daughters in one school. And the school has a hot
lunch program. The parents know that the library is open to all community
members, and that it would be an appropriate place to do homework, but they
are hesitant, embarrassed, and ashamed to use the library. For these parents,
and like many other homeless people, being banned from having a library
card is the same as being banned from the building.

One suggestion is to create a new "Community Card" for adults who cannot
provide proof of a permanent residence. This card could be issued for other
adults who, for reasons of poverty, mental or physical illness, and other
conditions that create social exclusion, cannot meet the financial expectations
of the current library card. People with a Community Card, which would be
physically indistinguishable from other library cards, would not be stopped
from borrowing library materials because of fines. Similarly, replacement costs
and processing fees would be noted, but would not prohibit library use. The

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

default position for this card would be no fines. To ensure the protection of the
collection, borrowing limits could be attached to the Community Card. The
Community Card would come up for review and renewal on a regular basis.
This would give staff a chance to ask "Are you happy with your card?" and be
trained not to say, "Do you have an address yet?" or "Can you afford to pay
fines yet?" With the introduction of the Community Card would come
additional staff training to sensitize staff to the issues of social exclusion in the
community. With the introduction of the new card could come additional staff
training focused on the needs of socially excluded communities and the
library's responsibilities to these communities.

The results of addressing the problems associated with fines, replacement
costs, and processing fees are increased information access, literacy, and
life-enrichment that socially excluded groups are often seeking and deserve,
and that the library strives to provide to all community members.

At the heart of every positive story about the library is a personal experience
with a library staff member. Staff develop and sustain the relationships that
embody and define library services. However well-conceived the service
model, without the people to humanize it, a service model is simply a set of
instructions.. Breaking barriers to library use is about building relationships.
Building relationships is about taking time, and it requires staff who are
trained, knowledgeable, and understanding of the community’s needs and the
library’s role in meeting those needs. As we build relationships we build
communities. When we build communities we sustain lifelong learning for all
community members.

Annette DeFaveri is the national coordinator for the Working Together project
and a librarian at the Vancouver Public Library. She would like to thank Brian
Campbell, Corinne Durston, and Mark Leier for their support and critical
comments.

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Culture, Identity and Libraries

By John Pateman

In my last article, Public Libraries and the Working Class (ISC 20) I looked at
working class use of libraries up to World War Two. This encompassed the
golden age of the working class autodidact who used public libraries for self
improvement, education and enlightenment. But working class use of public
libraries was not a mass activity. With the advent of the welfare state the
concept of universalism came to be applied to many public services, including
public libraries. Libraries departed from their traditional roots of providing a
service that was targeted at the “deserving poor”. From being a type of direct
action, they became “neutral” and “open to all”.. In the process public libraries
came to be used heavily by the middle class, who tend to consume public
goods out of all proportion to their numbers in society. In the shire counties in
particular, public libraries were used as a form of subsidised novel reading by
the middle class; fiction issues soared and public libraries took on the image
of a leisure service rather than as a vehicle for the informal education of the
working class. During the boom years of the 1950’s and 1960’s, book issues
became the predominant public library performance indicator.

Universalism was enshrined in the 1964 Public Libraries and Museums Act
which made it a statutory duty for all local authorities to provide a
comprehensive and efficient” service for all those who lived, worked or studied
in the authority. It wasn’t until the 1970’s that the original purpose of public
libraries started to re-emerge, under the label of community librarianship. In
authorities such as Lambeth, Manchester and Liverpool, public libraries
developed outreach and other services which were targeted at the
disadvantaged, the poor and ethnic minorities. This re-emergence was short
lived and disappeared in the 1980s when public libraries adopted a more
consumerist approach. Income generation became a big theme and a Green
Paper was produced proposing that public libraries should become a charged
for service. The pro-poor and self improvement ethic appeared again in the
1990’s, this time as part of the new social exclusion agenda. Its latest
manifestation, in the 21 st century, is the notion of a need-based service.

It seems that, no matter how many times the public library tries to re-invent
itself, its original mission keeps re-emerging under one guise or another. This
article will consider: what is social class and why does class matter?; the use
of public libraries by different social classes; and what can be done to
increase public library use by the working class.

What is class?

“Sociologists who have stopped the time machine and, with a good deal of
conceptual huffing and puffing, have gone down to the engine room to look,
tell us that nowhere at all have they been able to locate and classify a class.
They can only find a multitude of people with different occupations, incomes,
status hierarchies, and the rest. Of course they are right, since class is not
this or that part of the machine, but the way the machine works once it is set
in motion - not this and that interest, but the friction of interests - the

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

movement itself, the heat, the thundering noise. Class is a social and cultural
formation (often finding institutional expression) which cannot be defined
abstractly, or in isolation, but only in terms of relationship with other classes;
and, ultimately, the definition can only be made in the medium of time - that is,
action and reaction, change and conflict.

When we speak of a class we are thinking of a very loosely defined body of
people who share the same congeries of interests, social experiences,
traditions and value systems, who have a disposition to behave as a class, to
define themselves in their actions and in their consciousness in relation to
other groups of people in class ways. But class itself is not a thing, it is a
happening; it is a process of self discovery and of self definition.” (Thompson,
1963)

The fact that social class is difficult to define makes it a vulnerable,
problematic and contentious subject. There are many aspects to social class.

It can be viewed as a pyramid, or iceberg, only the top of which is visible. The
outward, objective manifestations of class include income, occupation and
lifestyle. But below the surface there are some very powerful subjective class
forces, including identity, culture, behaviour, beliefs, attitudes, values and
aspirations.

Class is also associated with history and politics: “The history of all hitherto
existing society is the history of class struggles. Society as a whole is more
and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes
directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.” (Marx, 1848). This
association is used to connect class with political parties, or to dismiss class
as something which was relevant in the past but is no longer pertinent today.

Class is still strongly linked with occupation. The Office for National Statistics
has five categories of socio-economic status: managerial and professional
occupations (eg teacher); intermediate occupations (eg secretary); small
employers and own account workers (eg self-employed); lower supervisory
and technical occupations (eg motor mechanic); semi routine and routine
occupations (eg postal worker).

Income and lifestyle are also used as key indicators of social class. Some
marketing companies such as Acorn use the following categories: wealthy
achievers (Eg wealthy executives, aspiring singles); comfortably off (eg
starting out, prudent pensioners); moderate means (eg Asian communities,
blue collar roots); hard pressed (eg struggling families, inner city adversity).

Occupation and income are important economic aspects of class, and these
can determine more subjective aspects: “The class experience is largely
determined by the productive relations into which men are born - or enter
involuntarily. Class-consciousness is the way in which these experiences are
handled in cultural terms: embodied in traditions, value-systems, ideas and
institutional forms.” (Thompson, 1963)

This introduces the cultural aspects of class: “I am convinced that we cannot
understand class unless we see it as a social and cultural formation. In the

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years between 1780 and 1832 most English working people came to feel an
identity of interests as between themselves, and as against their rulers and
employers. Class is a cultural as much as an economic formation.”
(Thompson, 1963)

This in turn leads to class as an important aspect of identity: “Class happens
when some men, as a result of common experiences (inherited or shared),
feel and articulate the identity of their interests as between themselves, and
as against other men whose interests are different from (and usually opposed
to) theirs. Class is defined by men as they live their own history, and, in the
end, this is its only definition” (Thompson, 1963).

Somebody with a high income and professional job may exhibit aspects of
working class culture, behaviour and beliefs. Similarly, somebody in a low
paid manual job may have middle class attitudes, values and aspirations. This
is sometimes called false consciousness. Social class, like race, is self
defined. If somebody considers themselves to be working class, then that is
what they are. Class is about identity and self identification.

Attitudes and behaviour are increasingly being used as indicators of social
class. For example, research suggests that children from middle class
backgrounds are more likely to drink larger amounts of water. A survey of
more than 5,600 children found that those who drank more water were more
likely to show certain attitudes and behaviour that might be termed “middle
class”.

Class is also about power, which provides a link to the notions of social
inclusion and exclusion. Those who are socially included (the middle class)
tend to have some power, to a greater or lesser extent; those who are socially
excluded (the working class) tend to have little or no power.

Class and Public libraries

Social class still matters because it is a key determinant of public library use.
As Investing in Knowledge points out “27% of regular public library users are
from social class DE, compared with 22% of the population as a whole”
(Museums Libraries Archives, 2004). DE is a reference to the well known
ABC1C2DE system of socio-economic classification.. This system aims to
measure employment relations and conditions of occupations. Conceptually
these are central to delineating the structure of socio-economic positions in
modern societies and helping to explain variations in social behaviour and
other social phenomena.

One of the key recent publications which details the use of public libraries by
social class is Arts in England: attendance, participation and attitudes in 2001
(Research Report 27, October 2002). Between July and November 2001 the
Arts Council of England and Resource commissioned Social Survey Division
of the Office for National Statistics to carry out a survey of attendance,
participation and attitudes to the arts. In total, 6042 people were interviewed in
England.

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This survey, which used the Office of National Statistics socio-economic
status categories, found that during the 12 months prior to interview 45% of
respondents had been to a library at least once, with around half of these
visiting more than 10 times in the preceding year. There were significant
differences in attendance by gender, age and socio-economic group. Women
were more likely than men to have visited a library (50% had done so,
compared with 41% of men). Those aged 16-24 (52%) and 35-44 (49%) were
most likely and respondents aged 75 and over (40%) least likely to have been
to a library.

Respondents from managerial and professional occupations (54%) were more
likely to have visited a library than those from other occupations. The other
figures are: 50% intermediate category; 37% small employers and own
account; 37% lower supervisory and technical; 37% semi-routine and routine;
and, 54% never worked / long term unemployed. Although not published in
the report, the survey found that the largest proportion of public library visitors
(39%) were from the managerial / professional category; the smallest
proportion (6%) were from the small employers and own account category.

Library visitors were significantly more likely than non-visitors to have read for
pleasure, bought a novel or other literary work, and written stories, plays or
poetry in the past year. Of particular interest is the relationship between
visiting libraries and purchase of fiction materials. 62% of library visitors had
purchased fiction compared with 38% of non-visitors. This confirms previous
studies showing a positive association between book buying and borrowing.
This could, however, be related to socio-economic status; people in the
professional and managerial groups were both more likely to go to a library
and to have bought fiction.

In the 12 months before interview 73% of total survey respondents had read
for pleasure. Respondents from the managerial and professional occupation
group were most likely to have read for pleasure (85%) or bought a novel,
work of fiction, play or poetry (66%).

Visits to libraries have conventionally been measured via analysis of official
records kept by the location in question, or through specially conducted on¬
site “count” surveys. For both approaches, information is generally limited to
estimates of simple “body counts”, without any contextual information
regarding the social and individual characteristics of visitors. The Public
Library User Survey (PLUS) can be of great benefit in understanding visitor
profiles, but it is of less use when it comes to assessing the characteristics
and motivations of non-visitors

Examining public use of museums, galleries, archives and libraries: report on
the 2000 UK Time Use Survey for Resource (July, 2003) used interviews and
time-use diaries. Interviews were completed, with all household members
aged eight and over, during 2000 and 2001 at over 6,000 households, with
over 11,000 individuals. 21,000 diaries were completed. Factors of age, sex,
social class, region of residence and education were taken into account. “This

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is because these factors themselves influence both cultural participation and
activity patterns.”

Using the diaries, the first statistically significant factor is age. The probability
of visiting a library was greatest for those aged 45 and over and smallest for
those between the ages of 16 and 24. Educational qualifications and
economic activity are also important. Being unemployed or long term sick /
disabled increases the probability of visiting a library, as does having a degree
relative to all other qualifications. Not doing voluntary work and living in an
area of high population density are also associated with visiting the library.

Looking at the individual questionnaire data, the higher the level of
educational qualification, the higher the chances of visiting a library. For
example, the probability of someone with no qualifications visiting a library is
24% compared to 48% for someone with a degree. Similarly, having never
worked or being employed in a routine or manual occupation reduces the
likelihood of a visit, compared to being in a managerial or professional
position.

Back to our roots

It is clear from the above research that social class is a key determinant of
public library use; it is also clear that public libraries are used more by middle
class than working class people, compared to their proportion of the total
population. So how can we increase the use of public libraries by working
class people? Here are a few suggestions:

m recognise that social class, like age, gender and race, is part of
people’s identity. It is therefore entirely legitimate and necessary to
collect data on library users and non-users regarding their social class,
in the same way that we collect data about their age, gender and race.
Use this data to target services and resources.

« recognise that social class is a cultural as well as an economic issue.
There is a distinct working class culture which is different from middle
class culture. Public libraries are associated, rightly or wrongly, with
middle class culture. Regard working class culture as an aspect of
multi-culturalism.

m identify and engage working class people in the planning, delivery and
monitoring of library services. Use outreach services to identify,
prioritise and meet working class needs. Set performance measures,
success criteria and targets in consultation with working class
communities, as part of a strategy to tackle social exclusion.

m ensure that social class is reflected in service strategy, structure and
culture. Include social class in equal opportunity, cultural diversity and
mission statements. Library staff, stock, services, buildings,
technology, displays and events should be relevant to working class
culture.

• Be advocates for and take positive action (not discrimination) in favour
of working class people. Take public libraries back to their historical
roots, when they were not neutral or universal, but explicitly pro-poor
and disadvanted.

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As Jonathan Rose has observed, we have nothing to lose, but plenty to gain,
from re-establishing contact with our working class communities:

“In Tony Blair’s Britain as in many other Western nations, professionals in the
creative industries have successfully reconciled bourgeois and Bohemian
values. Affluent and ambitious, profit-motivated and style-conscious, they are
sincerely committed to women’s equality and genuinely interested in the
literature, music, art, and cuisines of non-Western peoples. But the boutique
economy they have constructed involves a process of class formation, where
the accoutrements of the avant-garde are use to distance and distinguish
cultural workers from more traditional manual workers. For both these
classes, the withering away of the autodidact tradition has been a great loss.
We forfeited some important knowledge about ourselves when we shut out or
forget the working class observers of Bohemia. Even if they never caught up,
they saw, more clearly than any of us, where our culture was moving.” (Rose,
2002 )

In my next article in this series I will consider how working class people can
be given real power and control of public libraries and how this could lead to
the development of needs based library services.

References

Karl Marx & Frederick Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party (Lawrence &
Wishart, 1983, originally published 1848)

Museums Libraries Archives, Investing in Knowledge (MLA, 2004)

Jonathan Rose, The Intellectual Life of the British Working Class (Yale
University Press, 2002)

Adrienne Skelton et al, Arts in England: attendance, participation and attitudes
in 2001 (Arts Council of England / Resource, 2002)

Patrick Sturgis & Jonathan Jackson, Examining Public Use of Museums,
Galleries, Archives and Libraries (Resource, 2003)

E.P.Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (Pelican, 1963)

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Key Worker Status for Library Workers

Martyn Lowe

High Skills. Low Pay.

Campaign for a living income for library workers.

Over the last decade the plight of all library workers has become one of high
skills and low pay. Library workers have always been badly paid.

Yet library workers do an essential job within the community, which is
complimentary to that which is performed by those who work in education.

Yet library workers earn on average Much LESS than education workers, and
are not even classed as key workers!

Even within the public authorities (local councils) in which library workers
serve, they are on lower grades and undertake higher responsibilities than
those who work within other departments of the same employer.

Unless this situation changes within the next few years, then there will be a
major deskilling of library workers, as very few people will be willing to take up
this underpaid work.

This will be to the greater detriment of all those who use libraries and public
information services!

In order to address these problems, we call for the following changes to be
made.

A. That all Library Workers be immediately classified as Key Workers

B. That all Library Workers should be upgraded in parity with that of
other public

authorities (local council) workers.

C. That an immediate upping of all Library Worker career grades be
implemented.

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Failed Globalisation Policies Effects on African Faiths

David Nderitu

Globalisation with respect to Africa seems to have exacerbated an already
bad situation. When the song of liberalisation was sang across the globe
during the Reagan and George H Bush years, many ordinary Africans saw
hope in globalisation...that friendly animal which magically produces the milk
of freedom of speech and opulence, at the same time building mansions
along bougainvillea-lined private boulevards and leaving no one behind.
Among the above dreams, only the song of free speech became a reality with
some melody. It was a song many Africans with their traditional gift of singing
were prepared to sing, having rehearsed it in private already. The ‘Messiah’
had at last arrived in the very predominantly religious continent. The Africans
were not shocked that the Messiah had arrived in form of a former third rate
Hollywood actor in a cowboy hat. Did the bible not promise that the sun will
rise from the west? Jolly good! California happens to be most the west of the
west: geographically, politically, morally and economically.. Prophecy fulfilled!

Prior to this, Africa had within a short period tasted hard earned liberty
from colonialist with hope for a better life. It was a short lived dream that soon
turned hope into despair as poor governance, greed, corruption and in some
instances anarchy set in. The state of the economies led to a series of
heartless military coups the breadth of Africa...that heart shaped
continent...with a promise to improve people’s lives. Healthy economies to
many African states must have been ghosts, which never see the light of the
day. So when good governance and accountability was preached, it was a
sweet gospel to many. And who can ever argue with that unless you are the
perpetrator!

The existing governments were told to liberalise politically, industrially
and commercially. Some of those governments if not all were not endeared to
Washington and they complied fearing the almighty firepower, which America
had demonstrated against Granada and Panama without anyone raising a
finger. If there was any darling of the west among the African leaders, he was
just a gregarious minion with a taste of good life, large Mercedes, huge libido
and a large bank account, which the prying eyes in Washington possibly had
turned a blind eye to so long as the minions towed the IMF policies.

In Africa, liberalisation was chaotic. The Africans broke down all trade
barriers. Anyone could bring anything, anyhow, anytime (AAAA)...Double AA,
the super economic breakdown vehicle on the economic road perdition. It was
like as if they had never heard of protectionist policies called tariffs. Probably
they were eager to just toe the line. Any semblance of a trade ramparts were
torn down.. Control was being lost and some people became filthy rich and
most became terribly poor. It was an economic disaster, which only ended
making a bad situation worse. The leaders had been told to liberalise so that
they could remain in power.

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With regard to state wealth, looting is an understatement as
demonstrated even in Russia. Some greedy lot within the systems teamed up
with moneyed people in the west to buy state properties at a value next to
nothing...a value fixed by the interested parties...only for the same properties
to pop up in the market a few weeks later at tens of times its value a few
weeks before. The common wealth had turned into private wealth with a price
tug. The poor who now had nothing, had to pay high prices, for what they
used to buy with a token literally. Without money, they became beggars and
criminals. It would not take long before the religious Africans saw globalisation
as the dragon with seven head and ten horns.

If the Africans are starting to ask questions on the globalisation, the
western God has not been spared. Some form of renaissance among the
Kikuyu tribe in Kenya is starting to kick in. They are starting to turn to their
own God, whom they feel they deserted with the ingress of the missionaries.
The nascent believe is growing by the day that their God, who resides on Mt
Kenya, created the first couple, Gikuyu and Mumbi, blessing them with nine
daughters who in turn married, springing the nine Kikuyu clan. From those
nine clans, the world was born. I would be interested to know which daughter
brought forth the Bush family! But the faith, which had been dormant for
nearly a hundred years, is taking root with the rank and file. People are
visiting the Kikuyu version of ‘Garden of Aden’ known as Mukurwe wa
Gathanga. At least they can pin point the tree where God dropped the couple
unlike the Garden of Aden who no one can say where Aden is let alone the
garden. So much for the renaissance but this illustrates that the Africans are
starting to long for something more fundamental which they can call their own.
They are yearning for nothing less than their own religion and a God who can
walk closer to their needs. They are seeking Him first, believing that liberty
from poverty, health and all things good will be added unto them! What other
philosophy their in lies?

Another point to note is that Africans like the Europeans in the middle
ages have developed very ‘quirky’ faiths believing in anything that will offer
hope. After all, anything is better than globalisation (read nothing) which like
nuclear energy promised such cheap energy that it would not be worthwhile to
meter. But the outcome was different!

If in Washington, globalisation sounds like the relics wealth and power,
its echoes in Africa thud like the discordant tones of diseases, hunger and
starvation. Apparently, ‘globalises’ are using the Archimedes principal of:
‘Give me a fixed point, a long lever, and a place to rest and I will lift the whole
world,’ having found a fixed place in Washington, while resting on the IMF
policies, using the long lever of the financial muscle of the World Bank and oh
boy oh girl...aren’t they toppling the whole world!

It may be that the scales are starting to tip back to the socialist
economies...the hour hand in the clock is slow and steady...not just from the
effect of ‘globalises’ alone but any small yawn from nature, due to large world
population will increasingly create larger catastrophic situations which will
seem to spell the apocalypse. In that case, standing shoulder to shoulder in a

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threatened situation is the only natural process unless we want to aid the
demise of the civilisation, as we know it.

These events, human or natural will raise moral issues, which
inevitably will become social issues of stratification and order. Which
system(s) is best suitable for the survival of mankind? No one has the answer
but the answer lies with both time and the people. But one thing is certain, the
question is more morally based and it is likely to give a moral answer,
something more appealing and caring. Dangerous competition of capitalism
with no regard to our environment will become a principal theme as threats
become more and more. It could be that nature, in his eternal predestination
can define, albeit through catastrophic means, the political and social paths
that man follows at any one time.

David Nderitu, (BSc- Civ Eng, MSc), London

Davidknl @yahoo. co.uk

Wednesday, 26 January 2005

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Pain of Globalisation

David Nderitu

After the fall of Iraq and the rude realisation by Washington that American
were persona non-grata in Iraq, George Bush had petite change of heart and
attitude towards the UN and Old Europe, as self-complacent Secretary of
State Rummy boy is want of reminding Germany and France. The slight
change did not come as a surprise to many political observers around the
world. The Americans had gone to Baghdad riding chariots of fire, expecting
the streets to be lined with crowds chanting glory to America, long live George
Bush and frantically waving olive branches, with excitement rising like dust in
the Baghdad still afternoon air. The reality turned out to be very different, very
different indeed. What they encountered were angry demonstrations of people
armed with guns and all sorts of explosives chanting death to America. Had
they listened to the voices of the majority before invading a sovereign country,
the outcome could have been much less disastrous but then, they were
Americans!

Once upon a time, so the Greek mythology goes, Daedalus and
Icarus, father and son of royal decent, managed to take a flight on glued
wings. Icarus flew too close to the sun after experiencing the excitement of his
newfound emancipation. If he could defy the laws of gravity, he could
challenge Zeus, the Greek god of skies in his own territory. His father had
forewarned him of the dangers of flying too close to the sun, but being young
and full of hot blood, the young Icarus had no time for the old and
experienced. Icarus flew so close to the sun that the glue melted, detaching
his wings. He subsequently fell down into the sea where he perished.

Europe has seen empires come and go. It knows the financial and
human cost in creating hegemony, the inevitable doom and eventual
humiliation. It was this experience that Europeans ( with exemption of political
leadership in Britain) were passing on to young America at the UN debate
before the Iraq war. But America, being of hot blood like Icarus and at the
cutting edge of technology was in no mood to listen. It was going to fly
high...come sun come rain. It decided to go it alone and attacked Iraq. After
all it was armed with Skyhawks, Tomahawks or any other sharp-eyed hawks
like Dick Cheney, Rummy boy and the security guru Paul Wolf, Richard Perle
et al who dominate Washington and its skyline. Any little lies they may have
given had been washed in the blood of...you got it...blood of the very, very
born-again His Holiness the Attorney General, John Ashcroft...whose veins
are full of blue cleansing blood. But they forgot that they needed the UN as a
binder...the glue in their mission. Now that the heat is on, the wings are
melting in the desert.

The implication of this gung-ho attitude is damaging the long-term
American reputation and interests around the world. It will disrupt the existing
world order and probably, as some might already be starting to read the
writing on the wall, bring about the turning point of the very American
domination that the hawks are trying to build. Some Imperial analysts are
presently drawing the parallels of the vigorous American domination to the

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peak of British Empire, which started to crumble shortly after the Second
World War leading to an avalanche.

America should ask the historians: Why did the British Empire
crumble? Simple. During the Second World War, the colonised fought
alongside the colonialist to preserve The Empire. The subject had supported
the empire during the war and they expected support after the war and not to
be subjugated.

During the cold war between America and the Soviet Union, a lot of
nations had supported America, now it seeks supremacy over them. They feel
betrayed. They may not be fighting a gun battle with America but a rather
gruesome economic war with no end and no hope in sight. They are now
asking: Did they help to write an equation (or an inequality), which is clearly
imbalanced against them? Ordinary people in far-flung nations know of
different acronyms than those based in Washington and elsewhere...IMF-
International Monetary Fraud, WB-Wild Bank; a bank that sings to its master’s
voice at the Citicorp, WTO- World Thieves Organisation.

The dominated are fiercely responding to the new world order. It was
new fifteen years ago but it is not new any more. Developing Nations are now
well familiar with the pain they have endured over the years and they need no
telling of the benefits of the sugar coated pill as generations get wiped out by
the merciless wild bank policies who basic principles are survival for the fittest
and the winner takes it all. As Joseph Stiglitz, who held a three-year stint as
the World Bank Vice President and its Chief Economist, Chairman of Council
of Economic advisers among others, the current globalisation policies are
nothing else than briberization. They are policies made by the likes of Ken
Lay, the former chief executive at Enron who supervised the largest looting of
a company in human history, the Federal Reserve Bank of America, Citi-Corp.
et al.. These policies are geared to benefit the rich in America while
impoverishing the poor in already poor countries. No wonder they are starting
to fight back.

The poor countries in Cancun were unable to see the serenity of the
tourist resort set on the pristine beaches...the delegates mind were haunted
by the scourge of poverty and disease in their own countries which on the one
hand, the Capitalist West has sworn to eradicate while on the other, they are
relentlessly seeking to perpetuate the same by setting shady and unfair
trading terms on the poor nations. The meeting at Cancun was not any
different from the one in Seattle four years ago or the one in Doha in 2001.
The rich will have their way, while the poor will suffer what they must, just as it
were in the old Olympian World. Ironically, the meeting was being held in Kan
Kun...Mayan, meaning nest of Vipers. The G7 vipers were truly home!

When the wind of change started blowing all across Africa, the
ordinary folks saw hope of globalisation shimmering like the dawn of a new
day. He had shown his face again in the great continent after nearly three
thousand years. But it has turned out that the shimmering rays of globalisation
were the scotching heat that would kill the tender economic plants in mostly
young countries that on average have known political independence for about
thirty years. It was a plant that required constant watering on the fast draining
sandy-political independence soil but the west with its vast ability to soak up

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drained the soil of the little water it could hold and the death of the economic

plant was a matter of when not if.Now where there was hope, desperation.

Poverty has increased and death rate from all sorts of diseases has reached
disaster levels, a situation that they have almost come to agree as their
destiny with an uncaring god. To a bacteriologist, E coli is a measure of a
filthy environment and other bacteria. Surely there must be an equivalent
economic model to measure failure or success. What suffering will the
developing countries have to undergo before IMF and co. acknowledges
poverty as a measure of failure of the current world economic policies?

To most people in the developing world (are they really developing?),
the term globalisation had come to mean colonisation, poverty and slavery
redefined. Can a slave owner really liberate a slave to the slave owner’s
detriment? They are asking and they say no. Developing countries, especially
Africa, which was the slave goldmine for the west, need to fight for real
economic freedom. Globalisation means that when developing countries
borrow money for capital investments in a bid to lift themselves up the ladder,
they are shackled with terms that in a little while leave them worse off than
they were in the beginning. They are given money to pave the way for big
corporations to take over any profitable services being run publicly and they
are left with those tax guzzling services, which due to their nature cannot and
will not generate income no matter who runs them, private or public...the
essential services, like public schools and colleges, public health, roads,
social services etc while money generating water departments within
municipal councils are privatised in the name of efficiency. Where the
profitable service could have complimented the non-profitable ones, a hole is
created and the money most likely will be in the pocket of a big American
corporation. The borrower is forced to go back again to borrow their own
money at crippling terms and interest. Cheques are offered written in the ink
of their own blood. Before too long, the country is hopelessly poor, children
with running noses, diseases and hunger become the feeding grounds for
popular journalism, creating a stereotype image of a people beyond help. The
loan shacks of the middle ages are back but this time they operate globally
and not in Europe..

There is no limit for globalisation. Globalisation is a black hole for the
poor countries whose economic singularity will soon become a matter of
national security to many countries around the world. But do the greedy lot
see that? Do they care if they see? No. If the term democracy means that
which works for most people while taking care of the rights of the minority,
globalisation means that which works for a few and disregards the majority.
Otherwise how does one marry the fact that half of the world population is on
less than one dollar a day while a tiny minority have more than half of the
world wealth?

Globalisation is threatening to enslave the future generations for ages
to come. It is also important to realise that any economic gains has to be
acquired by inches and it has to be hard fought. To paraphrase Thomas
Jefferson writing to Charles Clay in 1790 “The ground of liberty is gained by
inches and we must be contented to secure what we can get from time to time
and eternally press forward for what is yet to get”. When the freedom charter
was declared and the formal colonialism ended, the colonised were duped to

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thinking that the playing field was now levelled. The colonialist simply melted
away into the bush to fight another day. They have now regrouped and the
pagan colonisation has been christened globalisation and whose soldiers are
now advancing a deadly crusade whose control centre is in
Washington.. .deadly economic war. The poor, especially Africa, are back to
where they were in before the slave charter was drawn. One can almost hear
the taunts “We told you we would be back!” Even as they (the enslaved
developing countries) look back nostalgically to the day when a bushel dished
out by the master could make a full belly, the master now taunts the liberated,
“We told you couldn’t do on your own.” But it was the master who made the
conditions unfavourable to fulfil his prophesy.

The following conversation I overheard the other day may sum up a
lot of peoples feelings from developing world today.

‘Is the World running out of inventions?’

‘Why do you say that? There are plenty of them, only that you may
not be aware.

‘Why are American pharmaceutical companies going round the world

patenting trees that we have always used for herbal medicines to
their own companies.. .trees that have never and cannot grow in
America. ’

‘Ha! Have they now?’

‘They are trying to take over our Game Reserves too. They will own
the Game Reserves which by nature cannot be found in their
countries. ’

‘Don’t you think that these are much more cleverer, more imaginative
inventions than the past ones?’

‘As Clever as Grant and Speak discovering Mt Kenya and putting that
as a fact our for children to read.’

Luckily, it did not take long before the children asked questions on
the Mt Kenya discovery and putting the records straight... The First white
people to see...’

It will not take long either before the children trip over the TRIPs and
reclaim their mugumo, muiri, murubaini, neem (A tree in India threatened by
American Pharmaceutical companies to obtain patent rights. The Indians
have been using its extracts to treat a host of ailments for a long time), etc
trees and their Game Reserves.

The Project for New American Century (PNAC, a blue print for Pax
Americana) may not be quite what Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz and their
Corporate friends are packaging...it may be a different pact all together in
another twenty years.. .Pact for New World Century.

One interesting observation about ‘globalises’ is that they require
minimum governments or if possible, no governments at all so that that can

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carry out their dubious deals with impunity. The minimum government is a
government as defined by them and be-spoke to their own benefits. They
base their theories on Adam Smith’s invisible hand. But as Joseph Stiglitz
says at Carnegie Council’s in Books for Breakfast “.. .every game needs
rules and referees to avoid chaos.” ‘Globalises’ will certainly agree with
Stiglitz, only that they are playing both. The end result is a game without rules
leading to chaos. They have reduced institutions of governance like
parliament to a talking shop and the executive to a cuddling poodle as the
looting goes on. I only know of another group of people who do not like
governments: anarchist and if this beast is not checked, we will be in it
together. With money, one can build a glasshouse to shield him from the
doomsday of the physical environment, which has become a concern for
many other than in Washington, but there is no running away from the
economic doomsday. It will get you wherever you are and whatever you are!

David Nderitu, London.

Email: davidkn1@vahoo.co.uk

Sunday, 09 January 2005

References:

1) Mick Brooks-Stiglitz Blows the Guff (May 2003)

2) Thomas Jefferson- The Writings of Thomas Jefferson

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Rethinking the ‘Balance in Copyright’:
3 parts to the balance, not just one!

Ruth Rikowski

The Balance in Copyright

‘The Balance in Copyright’ - how important this concept is considered to be in
the library and information profession! The generally accepted definition in
regard to the ‘balance in copyright’ is the aim to maintain a balance between
the rights of creators of works and the free flow of information of these works.
However, it is actually more complex than this, I would suggest! In regard to
the accepted definition, the Committee on Copyright and Other Legal Matters
(CLM) of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions
(IFLA) outlines this quite clearly when it says that:

The greater public interest is served in two ways: firstly, by giving authors an
incentive to create; and secondly, by encouraging the dissemination of new
knowledge. (CLM, 2002, p. 2)

Furthermore, IFLA refers to the balance saying that it:

.. .supports balanced copyright law that promotes the advancement of society as a
whole by giving support and effective protection for the interests of rightsholders as
well as reasonable access in order to encourage creativity, innovation, research,
education and learning. (IFLA, 2000, revised 2001:1)

Gillian Davies when writing about copyright also refers to this overall balance
in general, saying that:

The copyright system as it has developed over the past nearly 300 years, has
created, in the public interest, a balance between the rights of the authors, on the one
hand, and the interest of the public in access to protected works, on the other.
(Davies, 2002,p.7)

Meanwhile, Paul Pedley makes an interesting and valid point when he says
that, in reality, library and information professionals often find themselves
playing a ‘piggy in the middle’ role when endeavouring to achieve this
balance, and that:

Library and information service professionals find themselves in a difficult situation
playing the role of ‘piggy in the middle’, acting as guardians of intellectual property
whilst at the same time being committed to supporting their users’ needs to gain
access to copyright works and the ideas that they contain. (Pedley, 2003, p. 47)

Therefore, in essence endeavouring to achieve this balance becomes
necessary in order to ensure that knowledge, information and ideas continue
to be both developed and disseminated. Creators of works will have little
incentive to create if they are not given any rights - and there are two types of
rights here - moral and economic rights. However, once they are given some
rights it is also important to ensure that information flows as freely as possible
- i.e. that intellectual property rights do not unduly hinder the free flow of
information. So, articulating this need for balance is simple enough, but trying

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

to implement this balance is far more difficult and problematic. Those in the
library and information profession are well aware of these difficulties, but what
they do not really seem to be aware of and consider is the fact that there are
actually 3 parts to the balance and not just one. Once this is fully grasped, the
complexities and difficulties involved with trying to obtain a balance in
copyright become even more overpowering!

Therefore, embedded in all the language of balance in copyright is the
assumption that there is just ONE balancing act that needs to be performed -
i.e. the aim to achieve a balance between the creators of works and copyright
holders and the free flow of information of these works. This language is
embedded in copyright literature in general (such as Gillian Davies), and in
the library and information literature on copyright, in particular (such as IFLA).
In contrast, I am arguing that there are actually three parts to this balance and
not just one. Until we are fully able to understand this, we will not be able to
make meaningful progress in our understanding and thinking in regard to the
balance in copyright, I would suggest. However, once we do grasp the fact
that there are 3 parts to the balance our problems, as a profession, have only
really just begun, because HOW can we actually maintain a balance in each
of these 3 parts? Is it actually possible to maintain this balance?

The balance in copyright - 3 parts to the balance, not just one

Why then, am I arguing that there are three parts to this balance? When one
starts to think about the notion of the balance in copyright at a deeper,
philosophical level, it becomes apparent that the notion is not as simple or
straightforward as it might initially appear to be. When I started examining the
World Trade Organisation’s agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) I discovered that moral rights had been
excluded from TRIPS. All the main parts of the Berne Convention had been
incorporated into TRIPS apart from moral rights. I was not really surprised to
discover this, given the fact that TRIPS is mainly concerned with the trading of
intellectual property rights, rather than with the giving of rights to creators of
works. So, I concluded that the balance in copyright held no real place in the
TRIPS agreement - how could it, given that moral rights had been excluded?

I wrote three articles (Rikowski, 2003a, 2003b and 2003c) and gave some
talks on the topic of TRIPS, libraries and information, and I emphasised these
points in my articles and talks.

However, this notion of the balance in copyright still bothered me as a
concept. Moral rights have been excluded from much copyright legislation
(and not just TRIPS), particularly in USA and UK legislation - Europe
historically, in contrast, has been much better in regard to this. In France, for
example, moral rights were given a prominent place in the 1957 legislation.
Gillian Davies emphasises that:

The moral rights of the author were given pride of place so as to protect the
personality of the author through the work. (Davies, 2002, p. 171)

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

In Germany, moral rights were included in the German Copyright Act of 9
September 1965 and Dutch copyright law was largely founded in the
Copyright Act of 1912, which conferred both moral and economic rights on
authors. Italian copyright law is mainly contained in the Law No. 633 of 22 nd
April 1941 and this also gave authors both moral and economic rights (Bently,
2002, pp. 63-64). However, moral rights were only incorporated into British
legislation in 1988 - in the 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patent Act. As
Torremans said:

The introduction of moral rights in the Act was clearly a step in the right direction... It
becomes clear that the concept of moral rights is not yet fully integrated in the UK’s
entrepreneurial style copyright system. (Torremans, 2001, p.233)

Moral rights in the US were also introduced at around this time. Thus, just
from this simple perspective (i.e. the exclusion or waiving of moral rights), it is
clear that much of the copyright legislation, directives and agreements is not
really concerned about trying to achieve any real balance in copyright.

However, this is only one part of the balance! We need to think further, in
order to unravel the complexities here. Moral rights are embedded in one half
of the balance! It cannot be simply stated that copyright legislation that does
not include moral rights is not concerned with the balance in copyright at all,
because this completely leaves out any consideration in regard to the free
flow of information. Confusing? - it seems so.

Yet, if one thinks in a diagrammatic form and envisages 3 parts to the balance
and not just one, then all suddenly becomes clearer. So, we have the main
balance - the balance between the rights of creators of works and copyright
holders and the free flow information and the two halves of the balance -
making 3 parts to the balance altogether. One half is the aim to balance the
rights for creators of works and copyright holders (i.e. their moral and
economic rights - and there are 4 moral rights and 6 economic rights) and the
other half is the aim to balance various aspects of the free flow of information.
A number of different aspects could be highlighted here, but four seem to me
to be particularly important - free access to information, intellectual freedom,
freedom of expression and freedom of information.

Thus, this can be illustrated more clearly in diagrammatic form:

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Main balance in copyright:

Balance between the giving of rights to creators of works

and copyright holders and the free flow of information
(1- part of the balance)

Giving of rights to
access to
creators of works
and copyright holders

Moral Rights
Economic Rights

Free flow of and easy
information:

Free Access to Information,
Intellectual Freedom
Freedom of Expression
Freedom of Information

Balancing the 2 halves of the balance

Balance between moral and
economic rights

(2— part of the balance)

Moral rights:

Paternity Rights
Integrity Rights
Right not to have a work
falsely attributed
Commissioner’s right of
privacy

Balance between free
access to

information, intellectual
freedom, freedom of
expression and freedom of
information

(3- part of the balance)

Free access to information

intellectual Freedom

Freedom of Expression

Economic rights

Right to copy a work
Right to issue copies of the
work to the public
Right to rent or lend the work
Right to perform, show or play
aspects/the work in public
Right to communicate the
work to the public
Right to make an adaptation or
translation of the work

Freedom of Information

(and the inclusion of
other possible
categories)

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Drawing this simple diagram also helps to further illustrate the complexities of
the subject.

Endeavouring to achieve the main balance in copyright is difficult enough, as
Paul Pedley articulates, but when one realises that one also has to try to
maintain a balance within each half of the balance, then the problem really
starts to escalate! In regard to the rights for creators of works and copyright
holders, there should be a balance between economic and moral rights - i.e.
creators of works and copyright holders should be able to obtain both their
moral and their economic rights. However, given that moral rights are often
excluded from copyright legislation, agreements and directives, this is clearly
going to be impossible. Even if they are included, they are often waived. In the
UK 1988 Copyright, Design and Patents Act, for example, moral rights are
frequently waived. As Bently says:

In practice, the effect of the waiver facility is that ‘moral rights’ do in fact tend to be
waived by authors, composers, photographers and directors, when they assign their
rights. The 1988 Act may have given creators moral rights, but the waiver provision
means that in nearly all cases the creator is forced to give them up. (Bently, 202 p.9)

However, even if both moral and economic rights were to be included in all
copyright legislation, directives and agreements, the problem of balance still
remains. Trying to ensure that all creators of works and copyright holders
obtain all the economic and moral rights that they should, is no easy task (to
put it mildly!). But with moral and economic rights at least we have clear
categories that we are working with - there being 4 moral rights and 6
economic rights.

In regard to the free flow of information, though, the situation becomes even
more complex. We are not working with any neat categories here. I am
suggesting that there are four main aspects to the free flow of information,
which need to be balanced, but others might disagree with me - it is not
clearly laid out as the rights for creators of works and copyright holders are. It
is not clearly laid down anywhere, stipulating what the different aspects are,
how many there are (or should be), and how they are categorised. So, while I
am arguing that there are four main aspects, others might disagree with me,
and say that there are more or less, or different aspects, or that I have broken
down the categories incorrectly. Byrne (2000), for example, argues that
intellectual freedom encompasses freedom of thought, freedom of inquiry and
freedom of expression. For him, freedom of expression is a sub-category
within intellectual freedom, whereas I am giving them equal weighting. Even if
agreement can be established about what the aspects are, the next question
then becomes - how much weighting should they be given? If there are four
main aspects, as I am suggesting, then should they all be given equal
weighting - 25% each? Or should freedom of information be considered to be
more important than freedom of expression, for example? So, should freedom
of information be given a weighting of, say, 30% and freedom of expression a
weighting of, say, 20%? Then, how does one go about measuring the
weighting? The task starts to become enormous. The weighting problem also

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

applies to the rights for creators of works and copyright holders, (weighting
the 4 moral rights and the 6 economic rights), but the task is not quite as big
as the free flow of information task, as we have definite categories and points
that we can work with. However, the weighting problem for the main balance
is also a serious one. In regard to this whole topic of weighting and categories
and my perspective on it, Charles Oppenheim in his review of my book
Globalisation, Information and Libraries, had this to say:

At times, the author ties herself in knots in over-convoluted arguments - her text on

pages 226 and 260 are examples. (Oppenheim, 2005)

The text which he is referring to on these pages is in regard to my
deliberations on the weighting and category problem. I was astounded by his
comment. I have made a real breakthrough here, and this is his response. Not
only does Oppenheim not recognise that I have made a breakthrough, but he
seeks to belittle me. I am not ‘tieing myself up in knots’.. It is not my fault that
capitalism is a madhouse, based on irreconcilable contradictions. Yet, we
have to try to make sense of this mad world, for our own sanity. So, here I am
trying to make sense of the balance in copyright concept, and these are my
conclusions. I suggest that Charles Oppenheim should also try to make
philosophical and practical sense of the balance in copyright. Only in this way
can we productively develop our thinking. If he can thinks he can provide a
more adequate understanding and explanation then the one that I have given,
then let us have productive intellectual discussion on the matter. It is only in
this way that we will be able to really move theory, explanations and analysis
forward. The more one starts to think about many of these issues, then the
more complex it all starts to become. In regard to the balance in copyright, I
suggest that it is actually impossible to achieve this.

Conclusion

In conclusion, most of the literature on copyright (including copyright literature
in general and copyright literature in the library and information profession in
particular) only refers to the main balance in copyright - i.e. endeavouring to
maintain a balance between the rights of the creators of works and copyright
holders and the free flow and easy access to this information. This leads to a
serious flaw in the literature, I would suggest. In order to enhance our clarity
of thinking and understanding the literature needs to emphasis the fact that
there are actually three parts to the balance, and not just one. Once this has
been articulated clearly we will have a more adequate understanding in
regard to the balance in copyright. However, sadly this will not solve all our
problems, I fear! The problem of weighting is a serious one. But once we
appreciate the fact that there are 3 parts to the balance perhaps we will then
be able to consider further how we are actually going to try to achieve this
balance. We can only begin to attempt it by recognizing that we need to use
some sort of weighting/scale system. This applies for each of the 3 parts of
the balance.. However, once we are into the complexities of weighting, it will
then become apparent, I suggest, that establishing any fair weighting scheme
will be impossible, and that, indeed, achieving the balance in copyright in any

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

ultimate sense is actually impossible. Let us, then, give further philosophical
thought to the balance in copyright issue, and clarify our thinking.

References

Bently, Lionel (2002) Between a rock and a hard place: the problems facing
freelance creators in the UK media market-place: a briefing document on
behalf of the Creators’ Rights Alliance, London: The Institute of Employment
Rights

Byrne, Alex (2000) Towards a world of free access to information and
freedom of expression, I FLA Journal, 26 (4), 255-9

Committee on Copyright and Other Legal Matters (CLM), IFLA (2002)
Limitations and exceptions to copyright and neighbouring rights in the digital
environment: an international library perspective. Available at:

www.ifla.orq/lll/clm/pl/ilp/htm

(Accessed on 01/07/04)

Davies, Gillian (2002) Copyright and the public interest. London: Sweet and
Maxwell

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) (2000)
IFLA position on copyright in the digital environment. Available at:

http://www.ifla.Org/V/press/copydiq.htm . (Accessed at 20/07/04)

Oppenheim, Charles (2005) Review of Ruth Rikowski’s book, Globalisation,
Information and Libraries: the implications of the World Trade Organisation’s
GATS and TRIPS Agreements, Journal of Documentation (forthcoming)

Pedley, Paul (2003 Essential Law for Information Professionals, London:

Facet

Rikowski, Ruth (2003a) Tripping along with TRIPS? The World Trade
Organisation’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property
Rights, Managing Information, 10 (3), pp. 10-12

Rikowski, Ruth (2003b) TRIPS into the unknown: libraries and the WTO
Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, IFLA
Journal: Official Journal of the International Federation of Library Associations
and Institutions, 29 (2), pp. 141-151.

Available at: http://www.ifla.orq/V/ifla/ii.2..2003.pdf (Accessed at 21/07/04)

Rikowski, Ruth (2003c) Tripping over TRIPS?: an assessment of the World
Trade Organisation Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights, focusing in particular on trade, moral and information issues,
Business Information Review, 20 (3), pp. 149-57. Available at:

http://www.saqepub.co.uk/PDF/JOURNALS/FULLTEXT/a039452.pdf tripping

+over+trips%3F&hl=en (Accessed at 21/07/04)

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Torremans, Paul (2001) Holyoak and Torremans Intellectual Property Law, 3 rd
ed. London: Butterworths

Ruth Rikowski - Author of

Globalisation, Information and Libraries: the Implications of the World
Trade Organisation’s GATS and TRIPS Agreements. Oxford: Chandos,
2005

Pbk (ISBN) 1 84334 084 4
Hdbk (ISBN) 1 84334 092 5

http://www.chandospublishing.com/catalogue/record detail.php?recordl

D=35

Orders to: Extenza-Turpin, Turpin Distribution Services Ltd, Stratton
Business Park, Pegasus Drive, Biggleswade, Bedfordshire. SGI8 8TQ
Tel No. +44 (0) 1767 604951 Fax No. +44 (0) 1767 601640
Email: books@extenza-turpin.com

Ruth Rikowski, London, 9 th December 2004,
Email: Rikowskigr@aol.com

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Using libraries in Nigeria as tools for education and national
development in the 21 st century

Rose B. Okiy, Technical Services Librarian, Delta State University, Abraka,
E-mail: rosebini @ yahoo.com

Introduction

Education is an instrument par excellence for national development. It
involves the development of the whole person intellectually, psychologically,
socially, vocationally, religiously or morally. This is the reason why education
is seen as an integral part of national development. Education is a process
through which people are formally and informally trained to acquire knowledge
and skills. The formal training comes from established schools from the basic
level to the tertiary level.

Through this process of education, people are expected to obtain knowledge
and skills and hence specialize in specific fields of study. It is this knowledge
that allows people to contribute meaningfully to national development (Umar,
2004). National development involves economic growth, modernization,
equitable distribution of income and national resources and socio-economic
transformation for improved living standards of people through the use of a
country’s human, natural and institutional resources (Aboyade, 1984; Brooks,
1990; Mohammed, 1996).

The greatest resource for development is the human resource hence no
nation can develop in isolation of her human resources. The level and quality
of occupational participation and productivity of a populace are important
contributory factors to the level of economic and overall development of any
nation. It is therefore important that at all levels of education, high calibre
people be graduated so that they can give quality contributions to national
development in all spheres of life. The library is central to the provision of the
right type of information resources that empowers the educational institutions
to produce highly resourceful people to impact positively on national
development.

We are in the 21st century, an age that is powered by information in all its
ramifications. It is the age of information explosion in which the internet and
its associated technologies are being used to take advantage of the immense
knowledge of man all over the globe for the benefit of the accelerated
development of society. It is the information society. Consequently, it is only a
nation which is conscious of the importance of libraries and information in the
drive towards the accelerated development of a nation that can survive and
thrive in the comity of nations of this age.

According to Opeke (2004), information has received a widespread
acceptance as the essential feature of production, consumption and exchange
in this modern era. The world has entered an era where the source of wealth
and power is increasingly from information and human mental creativity as
compared to physical resources. The concept of an information society

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

implies awareness that there is a process of “intellectualism” in modern
societies which requires increasing number of people to possess a stock of
knowledge enabling them to make creative use of the enormous potential of
information. (Eraut, 1991).

As a result of the information society, organizations are changing and so also
are the skills needed to run them and the way they utilize human capital
(Opeke, 2004). It is this human capital that must be developed in our
educational institutions at all levels through the use of libraries well stocked
with up-to-date and relevant books including electronic libraries through which
they can acquire the skills needed to access, distil and utilize information for
development processes. Such people would possess the know how to
access knowledge quickly and from increasingly distant locations to positively
influence accelerated national development from all walks of life.

Libraries are at the centre of the academic excellence of all educational
institutions providing all the relevant information resources necessary for
sustaining the teaching, learning and research functions of these institutions.
The academic health, intellectual vitality and effectiveness of these
educational institutions in producing high quality graduates into the labour
market depend largely on the quality of information resources available in
their libraries to support the teaching, learning and research activities.

This paper will focus on the role of libraries in education and national
development, the state of development of resources and facilities in most
libraries in Nigeria and the types of libraries required for education and
national development in Nigeria in the 21st century.

Role Of Libraries In Education And National Development

The realization of the enormous power of information has made libraries and
information resource centres inevitably present in all sectors of a nations
economy. Hence today, libraries are found in all the three levels of our
educational system including public libraries, research institutions and private
organizations such as banks, insurance companies, etc. (Umar, 2004).
Libraries have always served as tools for educational advancement at all
levels of education (Akintunde, 2004). This is because libraries contain
information which is a vital tool for the pursuit of academic excellence at all
levels of education.

School Libraries

In Nigeria, libraries at the primary and secondary school levels have been
found to be tools for all round development of the child, it is the intellectual
centre of the school. Ibrahim, (1997), sees the school library as a place in the
primary and secondary schools where a full range of materials and
accompanying services are accessible to both teachers and students. It
represents the unified programme involving the use of audio-visual, printed
resources and tools necessary to satisfy the educational needs and
recreational interests of pupils, students and their teachers. This include a
variety of information resources such as textbooks, journals, reference books,
multi media, etc selected systematically, organized and disseminated to

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

pupils, students and teachers with the sole aim of supporting and enriching
the school curriculum (Umar, 2004).

The federal government of Nigeria knows the importance of libraries to
educational development, hence as far back as 1981, it stressed the need for
school libraries in the Nigerian educational system in the national policy of
Education and reiterated this further in the revised National Policy of
Education, (1998) as follows:

“As libraries are one of the most important educational services, proprietors of
schools shall provide functional libraries in all their educational institutions in
accordance with the established standards. They shall also provide for
training librarians and library assistants for this service.”

Academic and Research Libraries

In tertiary institutions of learning which include colleges of education,
polytechnics, universities, research institutes, libraries have been the centre of
intellectual activities, a convergence for both staff and students. According to
Akintunde (2004), the libraries in many tertiary institutions have either earned
the institutions accreditation or failed them because libraries are regarded as
tools for academic excellence. The libraries in the tertiary institutions assist
them in the discharge of their functions by acquiring all the varied and relevant
indepth information resources necessary for pursuing the teaching, learning
research and public services functions of these institutions which enable them
to produce high caliber graduates into the labour market to further national
development. Thus the academic institutions play a major role in the
manpower development of any nation providing the high as well as middle
level manpower for the acceleration of social, economic and political
advancement of a nation. According to Edoka (2000), the general functions of
academic libraries are as follows:

• To provide information materials required for the academic
programmes of the parent institution.

• To provide research information resources in consonance with the
needs of faculty and research students.

• To provide information resources for recreation and for personal self¬
development of users.

• To provide study accommodation in a useful variety of locations.

« To provide protection and security for these materials.

• To co-operate with other libraries at appropriate levels for improved
information services

• To provide specialized information service to appropriate segments of
the wider community.

National and Public Libraries

The public library is an organization established, supported and funded by the
community either through local, regional or national government or through
some other form of community organization. It provides access to knowledge,
information and works of imagination through a wide range of resources and
services, making it available equally to all members of the community

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

regardless of race, nationality, age, gender, religion, language, disability,
economic and employment status and educational attainment. (IFLA
Publications, 1997). Specifically, Wheeler and Goldhor (1962) shed more
light on the primary purposes of the public library as follows:

• Enable informal education opportunities for the citizens in the
community.

« Enrich the knowledge of individuals in various subject disciplines
where they undertake formal education;

« Provide avenues to meet the information needs of people;

« Support the educational, civic and cultural activities of groups and
organizations;

« Provide recreational opportunities and encourage constructive use of
leisure time.

National and public libraries are regarded as the people’s university being the
local gateway to knowledge, providing opportunities for life long learning,
independent decision making and cultural development of individual and
social groups (Oyegade, Nasarawa and Mokogwu, 2003). The public library
is a world wide phenomenon. It attempts to meet a wide variety of readers
needs, providing varied information resources such as text books, journals,
literary books, etc. The collections also contain information on social
sciences, reference work; recreational information and extension services. In
this way, the public library functions as a ready source of information on all
activities in all walks of life for people to take advantage of in decision making
for development activities and for educational advancement.

Special Libraries

Special libraries are libraries established in governmental and private
institutions to help manage information resources for the benefit of workers
and the institution so that the goals of these special libraries can be attained.
Special libraries can be grouped into the following categories: private
educational institutions, inter-national organizations, foreign governments, in
the governmental and professional associations, etc. (Ajibero, 2001). Special
libraries contribute to national development by providing in depth and relevant
information resources for scientists, researchers, government officials,
business executives, lawyers, etc, so that they can have the necessary
information at the right time to effectively and efficiently carry out their
research and the duties that would impact positively on the development of
the nation. This category of people is in constant need of quick and relevant
information to resolve issues and take decision.

In this regard, special libraries house information resources such as books,
periodicals, newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, documents, manuscripts,
pictures, maps, musical scores, non-print media such as transparencies,
slides, records, audio-cassettes, microfiches, microfilms, filmstrips, motion
pictures, video cassettes and in recent times, computers and the associated
peripherals.

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

The foregoing review of the role of various types of libraries in education and
national development present the invaluable contributions of libraries to
national development. However, it is necessary for us to take a look at the
true position of libraries of all types in Nigeria so as to assess how resourceful
they are in providing the necessary information resources for building the right
caliber of man power to engineer the wheels of national development.

The State of Development of Resources and Facilities in Most Libraries
in Nigeria.

The state of development of library facilities and resources in most libraries in
Nigeria leaves much to be desired. While lamenting the generally poor state
of provision of library facilities and resources in most primary and secondary
schools in Nigeria, Fadero, (2001) states as follows:

“Though the importance of school libraries enjoys a consensus view of
experts, yet it is generally denied the attention it deserves in major
educational plans. This has culminated in the acute shortage of funds to
prosecute library programmes at both national and state levels. Recognition
of its importance is therefore nothing short of lip service.”

Still on this issue, Fadero (2001) stressed that inadequate provision of
libraries in schools is a general disease that is plaguing education in Nigeria.
From north to south and from east to west of the country schools are
generally without libraries to support teaching, learning and the curriculum.
There is no clear cut policy on funding school libraries and so these libraries
are generally few and ill equipped, lacking proper accommodation, qualified
staff, relevant information resources such as books and other educational
materials. Odusanya and Amusa (2002) conducted a survey on the use of
school libraries in Nigeria and revealed that:

“Some primary and secondary schools were visited to see physically the
condition of the libraries in such schools. The findings showed that libraries
are almost non-existent in primary schools while few secondary schools have
what could be referred to as reading rooms. This is because information
resources in such libraries are not properly organized, scanty and old.”

While evaluating school library services since the inception of the library
profession in Nigeria, Elaturoti (2003) revealed that there were more
inspections of the school libraries than the actual supply and processing of
library materials. In the case of public library services in Nigeria, Oyegade,
Nassarawa and Mokogwu (2003), opined that there is no doubt that public
library service today in Nigeria is still at its rudiments like in most African
countries. According to Katunmoya (1992):

“Public libraries in most countries in tropical Africa rarely provide relevant
materials and hence they are ineffective. They are stocked mainly with
foreign literature that is both out of date and irrelevant to the information
needs and interests of the people that are expected to read them.”

The general poor attitude of the Nigerian government towards development of
libraries has also adversely affected the development of public library services

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

in Nigeria. Enough funding is not made available to the public libraries to be
stocked with the necessary information materials or provide adequate
services to their clientele. Ehigiator (1997) revealed that there was the
general practice by governments of releasing to the public library boards an
amount far less than what was approved for a given year. The statutory
annual approvals do not always reflect the actual needs of the boards. The
effect being that the quality and quantity of materials acquired and the levels
of services rendered are adversely affected. For instance, the poor state of
funding compelled the Edo State library board to abandon their mobile library
services. The general poor state of funding public libraries has forced many
head librarians to reduce library services being rendered to their clientele in
areas such as staff reduction (rationalization), redeployment, reduction in
book budgets, reduction in the number of programmes and services rendered.

The poor state of provision of library services is also being experienced in
the special libraries in Nigeria. Fatuyi, Yesufu and Ibrahim (1997), lamented
the poor financial state of research libraries in Nigeria, noting that the federal
Government whose duty it is to fund research institutes is yet to see libraries
or the information they provide as an essential and important commodity for
commerce and industry which is essential for national development.

It is only in university libraries that there is a definite funding policy from
government. They are being allocated 10% of the recurrent annual budget of
their respective universities. That is as a result of the federal government and
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) agreement of 2nd September,
1992. This agreement is not being fully implemented especially in the state
universities in Nigeria. This has resulted in inadequate provision of library
resources and services in most libraries in Nigeria especially in this 21st
century characterized by electronic library services. A recent report by
Odusanya and Osinulu (2004) on a state university library in Nigeria lamented
about gross under funding and its adverse effects on growth of library
collection and services with the entire library system suffering from large-scale
decadence and neglect.

The general poor state of funding libraries in Nigeria and the subsequent
inadequate provision of library resources and services is a great handicap
towards using libraries as effective tools for education and national
development in Nigeria. This brings into focus the need to examine the types
of libraries required for education and national development in Nigeria in this
21st Century.

Types of Libraries Required For Education and National Development in
Nigeria in the 21st Century.

The types of libraries required in Nigeria in this 21st century which is an
information driven age are libraries which will provide up-to-date information
resources in both print and electronic media to support teaching and learning
at all levels of education so that the right caliber of people with the right stock
of knowledge that would transform the nation can be produced. The
electronic libraries will also place at the disposal of pupils and students at all
levels of education the relevant information in both remote and immediate

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

data bases all over the world, that would enable them undertake in depth and
effective teaching and learning.

According to Singh(2004), the concept of ownership has been left behind with
emphasis shifting from building strong local collections for long term use to
accessing for current use of electronic materials made available by providers
anywhere in the world. Further more, libraries in many parts of the world now
maintain ‘hybrid libraries’ in order to make provision for both traditional (book)
and digital collections to meet the information needs of library users in this era
where Information and Communication Technology facilities have forced
changes in access to information.

Be that as it may, in the midst of the necessity for electronic libraries at all
levels of education in Nigeria, Ajibero (2000), paints a gloomy picture of the
availability of information technology facilities in most libraries in Nigeria,
noting that:

“The libraries have minimum automation mostly bibliographic database on
personal computer application software with only very few notable exceptions
,... there is a slow pace in automation, individual libraries are autonomous in
many respect each tailoring its collections and services to a local clientele ...
Nigerian libraries are oriented towards collections than access. There is no
single on-line shared cataloguing system in Nigeria not even between federal
universities."

This observation by Ajibero (2000) goes to confirm the assertion by Afullo
(2000), that the present day Nigeria is a country which has been ranked
among the lowest in the world in information and communication technology
infrastructure. The emphasis world wide is shifting from book collections to
the provision of electronic information services. Therefore, libraries of all
types in Nigeria should conform to this trend so that all library users can have
access to information in their local libraries as well as collections located in
other remote libraries and data bases to facilitate well grounded education.

It is in this respect that Alasa and Kelechukwu (1999), articulated the benefits
that can be derived from electronic libraries which are hooked to the internet
as follows:

« Quick and convenient information exchange.

« Access to experienced and expert individuals in thousands of fields.

« Access to regular updates on topics of interest;

« Enhancement of team work, access to geographical distances;
m Access to archives information;

« Transfer of data between machines and provide a great platform to
have fun and entertainment;

« As a reference tool, the internet provides a wealth of up to date
resources unavailable in bound volumes;

« The internet gives personal access to specialization and experts in
hundreds of disciplines;

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

« It enables you to reach your fellow librarians with messages and
documents independent of the constraints of mails, telegraphs or even
fax.

« One can collect news and facts which can be stored in one’s computer
for later use in reference;

• Resources in the internet allows libraries to provide better services to
their patrons by giving on-line access to information that would be
difficult to locate in any other manners

« The internet provides access to on-line catalogues for libraries very
close to or on another continent and it gives access to bibliographic
records of millions of books and the details of the holdings of
academic and research libraries around the world;

« Electronic journals and newsletters are made available on a regular
basis;

« Libraries can make the selection of books required in their institutions
and order them without going from one bookshop or publisher to
another;

m The Computer Read Only Memory (CD ROM) is another versatile
facility made available in academic libraries through the presence of
information technology..

This wide range of benefits from information technology facilities discussed
above are the hallmarks of the electronic libraries of this age. These are the
types of libraries required to transform our educational system in their
teaching and learning processes at all levels. The use of such libraries will
help to produce qualitative manpower at all educational levels. Students will
have at their disposal relevant information in their immediate libraries and
elsewhere to acquire in depth knowledge of their various subjects and
disciplines. This wide range of information resources will make them well
grounded in their various disciplines far more than students who do not have
such facilities. The facilities in the electronic libraries desired in Nigeria will
therefore include a wide range of books in all the disciplines in addition to
computers and their associated peripherals connected to the internet.

The Way Forward.

In the light of the above, it is necessary that libraries at all levels of education
in Nigeria be reorganized drastically in line with the electronic libraries of the
modern era. In doing this, the problems identified by Alasa and Kelechukwu
(1999), as militating against the use of information technology facilities in
libraries in Nigeria should be addressed. They include;

m Poor and inadequate telecommunication facilities

« Poor level of computer literacy even within the academic community.

« Poor computer facilities

m Poor level of awareness of internet facilities in the academic
community.

• Minimum involvement of academic institutions in network building and
diffusion in Africa;

m Ignorance of decision or policy makers of the power of information
network on the economic and industrial development of a nation.

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Zakari (1997), lfidon(1998) and Kiondo(2004),have also identified gross under
funding of libraries as a major obstacle in the acquisition and application of
information technology in their services. This is a major problem that should
be addressed since adequate funding is at the core of the provision of the
facilities required to equip the electronic libraries of the 21 st century being
advocated for education and national development in Nigeria.

For a start, libraries at all levels of education in Nigeria should be well
stocked with books and other information materials as a stepping stone to the
provision of computers and their associated technological facilities for our
libraries. Government will need to put in place suitable policies to enable
Nigerian children to possess the skills to effectively use libraries and the
present day information and communication facilities to apply information to
their daily endeavours and hence be able to function effectively and
compete favourably with their counter parts in other advanced countries of the
world.

At the moment, the Nigerian educational system is not geared towards giving
children a good understanding of the functioning and significance of libraries
and other information media and their uses. Knowledge of the importance of
libraries will enable children to learn to use, react to, select, reject, classify,
check, interpret and search for information (Opeke, 2004)

Pupils and students should be taught how to navigate their way through
libraries and the world of information and obtain knowledge from them. They
should be taught not simply to reproduce knowledge from information sources
but to construct knowledge in new and creative ways (Oberg, 1995). They
also need digital literacy. This is the ability of an individual to identify any
information required to satisfy a need, know how to use computers and digital
systems to source the information as well as know how to use the information
collected to solve a felt need. These are the skills that would empower the
products of our educational system to fit well into the modern industrial
system to which highly skilled manpower has become indispensable.

The present world now depends to a large extent on intensive information
transfer by means of Information Communication Technologies (ICT).
Therefore Nigerian pupils / students must be given the kind of training that
would impart sufficient understanding of the technology that powers the
information society. An information literacy programme should be
incorporated into the curriculum of schools to provide students with a wider
range of information handling skills which encompass accessing, processing
and retrieving relevant, timely, accurate information for identified need.

(Opeke, 2004). Such skills will empower students to be conscious of the
power of information in all spheres of life and hence be able to apply the same
in decision making and the construction of structures that make for enduring
political, social and economic development of a nation.

The Nigerian Universities Commission, the Nigerian Library Association, the
Librarians’ Registration Council of Nigeria, etc, should be properly sensitized

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

and coordinated to carry out this exercise. Government should put policies in
place to promote the provision of adequate library facilities and resources at
all levels of the educational system in Nigeria. This being the primary place
where the pupils and students are given the opportunities to experience well
stocked libraries that would develop the spirit of independent inquiry and the
manipulation of information to obtain knowledge. Information consciousness
coupled with skills in handling ICT facilities to obtain quick and relevant
information for decision making are the hallmarks of the highly skilled
manpower required for national development in this highly information
dependent global world of the 21st century.

The Nigerian government should rise to the challenge and provide all the
essential resources to put the educational system in proper perspective by
providing the right type of libraries which will enable the products of the
educational system to serve as effective agents for accelerated economic,
political and social development of the nation.

In the light of the foregoing, it is also imperative that librarians in all types of
libraries should possess literacy among other competencies so that they can
adequately guide library users. According to Quinn(1992), such competencies
include:

« Expertise in the concepts of the organization of knowledge
« Skills in information transfer theories
« Skills in synthesis of information
« Sensitivity to information transfer issues

m Appreciation of the use of information to gain competitive advantage
« Training in worldwide information resources
• Experience in the techniques and skills of information retrieval
« Training in information dissemination techniques.

Conclusion

The role of libraries in the educational system is examined and the importance
of education as a central feature in national development process discussed.
The present state of various types of libraries in Nigerian is highlighted. Most
types of libraries in Nigeria including libraries in educational institutions are
not adequately stocked with appropriate resources and facilities thereby
making them unable to effectively serve as tools for education and national
development in Nigeria.

The types of libraries required for education and national development in
Nigeria in this 21st century are libraries that are well stocked with up-to-date
books and other library resources in addition to libraries equipped with
present day ICT facilities typical of the electronic libraries of the 21st century.
These are the type of libraries that would empower the educational system in
Nigeria to provide manpower skilled in information handling and utilization
capabilities necessary for decision making in this information driven 21st
century.

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

There is the need for Nigerians in all walks of life to be conscious of the
importance of information and hence take steps to utilize libraries effectively in
obtaining information regularly for use. The Nigerian government is enjoined
to take up the challenge and make adequate provision of funds and other
resources to equip all types of libraries in line with the present day type of
electronic libraries. It is only through this way that our educational system in
Nigeria can serve as effective tools for education and national development.

References

Aboyade, O. (1976). Issues In The Development of Tropical Africa. Ibadan
University Press.

Ajibero, M.l. (2000). Strategies And Tools For Information Service Delivery In
The New Millennium. A Compendium of Papers Presented at the 2000 NLA
Annual National Conference/AGM, June 62 - 68.

Akintunde, S.A. (2004), Libraries As Tools For ICT Development. A
Compendium of Papers Presented at the 2004 NLA Annual National
Conference and AGM, Akure, June 10-18.

Alasa, M. and I. Kelechukwu (1999 ), Internet And Academic Library Services
Development In Nigeria. Nigerian libraries 33 (1), 17-29.

Brooks, D. (1990) Beyond Catch Phrases, What Does Sustainable
Development Really Mean?. IDRC Reports. October.

Edoka, B.E. (2000) Introduction To Library Science, Onitsha: Palma and
Links.

Ehigiator, L.l. (1997): Financial Support for Public Library Services in Nigeria.
Nigerian libraries 31 (1 & 2), 67 - 76.

Elaturoti, D.F., A. K.Shyllon, W.Udoh, (2003). Forty Years of School Library
Service To The Nation. In Olanlokin, S.O. (ed) Forty Years of Library Services
in Nigeria. Lagos: NLA/lkofa Press. 165-179.

Fatuyi, E.O.A., A.Yesufu, A. Ibrahim, (1997) Funding of Research Libraries.
Problems and Solutions. Nigerian libraries 31 (1 & 2), 42-51.

Federal Republic of Nigeria (1998). National Policy On Education, Lagos..
Federal Ministry of Information.

Ibetoh, C.A. (1998). Agents of Primary School Library Development In
Nigeria: State Primary Education Board. In Elaturoti, D.F. (ed) Nigeria School
Librarianship: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. Ibadan. Nigerian School
Library Association. 237-251.

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Ibrahim, U. (1997). Strategies for Effective Funding and Management Of
School Libraries in Nigeria. Nigerian Libraries. 31 (1 & 2), 86-96.

Ifidon, S.E. (1998). University Library Finance In Transition. The Challenge of
The 21st Century In: Committee Of University Librarians of Nigerian
Universities (CULNU); Proceedings of the Ibadan and Ekpoma Seminars of
1992 and 1994. Salisu T.M. and Olanlokun S.O. (eds.) 181.

International Federation of Library Associations. Publication ‘97 (2001). The
Public Library Service: IFLA/UNESCO Guidelines for Development ed. By
Philip Gill et al; K.G. Saur :Munchen.

Katunmoya, A. (1992). Public Libraries and Community Services In Africa..
African Journal of Library Archives and Information Science. 2(1), 33-38.

Kiondo, E. (2004). Around the World To: The University of Dar es Salaam
Library: Collection Development In the Electronic Information Environment.
Library High Tech News, No 6.19-24.

Mohammed, Z. (1996). Development Information At The Community Level:
Current Thoughts And Findings. A Paper Presented At The Workshop On
Development Information Strategies in Nigeria. Organized by the British
Council, Kaduna. December, 2-6.

Oberg, D. (1995), “Editorial” School Libraries Worldwide 1(1), 1-11.

Odusanya, and Amusa (2002). In: Lawal, O.O. Libraries as Tool for
Educational Development. In: a Compendium of Papers Presented At The
2004 NLA Annual National Conference/AGM Akure, June 34-40.

Odusanya, A. K. and L. F. Osinulu (2004).The Impact of ETF Funding On
Academic Libraries: A Case Study Approach. African Journal Of Library
Archives And Information Science, 14(2).185-192.

Opeke, R. (2004). Information For Education And Development in Nigeria. A
Compendium of Papers Presented At the 2004 NLA Annual National
Conference/AGM, Akure, June 41-47

Oyegade, E.A., A. Nassarawa, and W. O. Mokogwu, (2003). Forty Years of
Public Library Service in Nigeria. In: Olanlokun, S.O. (ed). Forty Years of
Library Services In Nigeria NLA/lkofa Press. 1-2.

Ouinn, K. T. (1992). Technical Vitality Challenges for Information
Professionals in the 1990s. FID News Bulletin, 42(3). 57-61.

Singh, S. P. (2004). Collection Management in the Electronic Environment.
The Bottom Line: Managing Library Finances,17(2). 55-60.

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Umar, I (2004). Libraries As Tools For Professional Development. A
Compendium of Papers Presented At The 2004 NLA Annual National
Conference/AGM, Akure, June 26-33.

Wheeler, J.L. and H. Goldlor (1962) Practical Administration of Public
Libraries. New York: Harper and Row.

Zakari, M. (1997). Funding Nigerian University Libraries and Information
Centres: Challenges of the 21 st Century. A Paper Presented at the Annual
National Conference/AGM of the Nigerian Library Association, Kaduna, May 5
-9.

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Going to the Movies

By Martyn Lowe

Film, The Movies, Moving Pictures, DVD, The Flicks, The Silver Screen, or
Cinema - call it what you may. How we view it, and what we get from it varies
greatly with

us all, Just as what we perceive from what we view upon the screen will be
dependent on our previous knowledge and the experiences we have gained
over the years. Plus the visual information which is being presented.

Now if you think about it, then the above statement might seem to be stating
the obvious, but nothing is (as they say) just what it appears to be. The whole
art of cinema started as a fairground set of visual illusions - theatrical tricks,
which have just got better and better as this technical art form has grown.

Yet get past the illusion, and look at what one is really looking at, and a whole
new set of options are to be found. Options which information workers should
be aware of. Options which can increase the knowledge base which is
available to us all.

One of the main problems with cinema is that many people just regard to as
entertainment, or an extension to the theatre, or maybe just a dramatic
interpretation of a novel. Yes, this is certainly an aspect of cinema, but it is
more than just that.

Cinema does more - it can help to educate us about social issues via the use
of drama.

It can also present us with knowledge and ideas which we would or could not
gain from any other information.

Yet at the same time cinema is being used as a means of just making a profit,
or selling us a product. If it were any other way then we would not have any
“product

Placements”(or Capitalist propaganda -as I would better describe it) within
any film. There is really no need for me expand upon this point, as the
expression “film tie-up” says it all.

On the other hand cinema has and continues to be used to sell us an
unrealistic dream, or perverted set of ideologies. One has only to think of John
Wayne fighting for “democracy” or Disney products in Muckdonalds to realise
just what really goes down.

However, it is not my intention to make something of a political criteria of the
existing cinema industry. I am more interested in how cinema might be used
by information workers and for social good. So here is my take on cinema and
what I get by just Going to the Movies.

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

One of the best aspects of cinema is what it can achieve via location filming. I
don’t just mean in terms of cinematic effect, but in terms of understanding and
memory.

For example: in terms of how one might better understand and appreciate a
drama if one knows or has visited a location.

Be it L.A. in the film “Independence Day”, New York in “Something Wild”,
Rome in Fellini’s “Roma” or just “Roman Holiday”, then I get more out of these
works just because I have visited these cities. I can also view them in terms of
my holiday reminiscences

While at a local level I find films which have been shot within my own
homeland, North London and Arsenal football ground in “Fever Pitch”, or
Kings Cross in the

1955 Ealing comedy “The Ladykillers” are fascinating in a very different kind
of way.

Seeing movies shot in places which one knows and loves has more of an
immediacy than if they were to be shot within something of a more distant and
exotic location. In other words - If you want to get a message over, then you
should locate it within some place one both knows and loves..

Perhaps that is why the movie “The Day after Tomorrow” which deals with the
consequences of global warming had such an impact within the USA. The
destruction of the New York Public library within the film must have effected
everyone who has ever worked within a public library. As an aside - part of the
movie “Ghost Busters” was filmed in the Pasadena Public library.

Yet it is not just location which gives a film impact, but social message too.
Many films are referred to as being political, or maybe political in nature e.g.
the Ken Loach work “Land and Freedom” or the Sergei Eisenstein work “The
Battleship Potemkin”.

There are however many other film works which while not being described as
political have a social message e.g “Once we were Warriors” which is set in
New Zealand, or “Bound for Glory” which is about the life and political work of
Woody Guthrie.

Hollywood films such as “The China Syndrome” and “Silkwood” carry very
strong anti-nukiller-power messages. The “China Syndrome” makes a
particularly strong impact, as it was released just after the ecological disaster
at three Mile Island.

“Soylent Green” which came out in 1973, is yet another movie which deserves
a mention within this context. Based upon the Harry Harrison novel “Make
Room! Make Room!” it deals with the social and other consequences of an
ecological disaster.

Another movie which is not thought about as political should also be
mentioned too.

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

The 1963 Orsen Welles version of the Frank Kafka novel “The Trial”, which
has a very modern message in terms of the issue of imprisonment without
trial, or trial without accusation

I have never really understood just why some films are called war movies,
while they contain a very anti-militarist message. I am not talking about the
John Wayne movies, or such 1950s works as “Ice cold in Alex” or “Heaven
Knows, Mr Allison”, but works which show the grim reality of war. I refer to
such works as “Das Boot”, “Stalingrad”, or Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal
Jacket”, in which the grim realities of war are shown.

The Steven Spielberg work “Saving Private Ryan” might be fanciful, but it
does show the full horror of the Normandy beach landing. His “Schindler’s
List” fully illustrates the reality of life in Nazi occupied Europe. These are both
very powerful films. Yet for a more blatantly obvious and amusing anti¬
militarist movie, then nothing can beat the SF movie “Starship Troopers”..

Of course the war or anti-militarist film should also be viewed within it own
historical context. Peter Watkin’s “The War Game” can only be viewed within
the context of the cold war, as can such movies as “Dr Strangelove” or “The
Day the earth stood still” The same thing also applies to the 1984 produced
version of the Arther.C.Clarke SF work “2010”, with its cold war background
as storyline.

The same applies to many other works too. The 1960s movie “Morgan - A
suitable case for treatment” (one of my favourite movies) can only really be
appreciated if one views it as a commentary upon the class and cultural
norms of its time.

I could go on and give many other such examples, but I think that I have
made my point. No movie can or should ever be seen, except within its true
social and historical context, and that is the point I really wish to emphasise.
For the rest there is just escapism and entertainment. Now just what movie do
I want to watch tonight?

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Imperialism, Censorship and Fascism

Declaration of the Movement of Documentarists
Drawn up by Fernando Buen Abad DomAnguez

There is no weapon of massive destruction deadlier than Imperialism. It
depredates nature, societies and civilizations. In the last 100 years,

Imperialism has multiplied, as an acute phase of Capitalism, its destructive
capacity. It has stopped development, it has started a period of generalized
crisis and it has brought about the expansion of misery to an extent so far
unheard of. Millions of corpses and maimed people, war casualties, millions
and dozens of millions of terrorized, crushed, cheated people. It is an
extraordinary cataclysm.. A monstrosity. And they want to silence us with
censorship.

Censorship is nothing but the cynic updating of Fascism. Many
documentarists in the central as well as in the colonized or semi-colonised
countries recognize the strategies of censorship and self censorship. They
know that it is an imperative of their work to use even the most unexpected
chance of "legality" left available to dodge endless prohibitions. But we cannot
forget that every censorship is a form of ideological war. Imperialist war of
conquest, banditry and theft of information. Subjection of truth in the
distribution of the world into colonies or territories won byCapitalism.

The seed of censorship lives in the state or private monopolistic development
of production, distribution, and consumption of documentaries. The growth of
"show industries" constitutes one of the forms of censorship most typical to
Capitalism. Because censorship is used not only to manipulate consciences
by depriving them of their freedom of information but it is also the result of a
struggle over the consumption markets brought about by the crisis of over
production of images: censorship is also a way of preventing competition.

If the means, the modes and the relations of documentary production continue
to be private property, the weight of the monopolies will increase. The almost
total lack of experimentation is added to the already hideous censorship,
practiced even on the theoretical and practical training of documentarists,
while production methodologies

are crushed by empiriocriticism and "inconvenient" authors continue to
disappear from the shelves of university libraries. It will become more and
more difficult to buy, hire or borrow the tools required for documentary
production because the high cost of those tools and the almost absolute lack
of alternatives is also a form of censorship.

Distribution and exhibition will continue to be in the hands of monopolies that
cannot be paid and cannot be penetrated. The censorship of commercial
cynicism will continue to rule. Attacks by the media, sneering remarks by the
television or the radio and the cases of direct attacks staged by all sort of
groups against documentarists and
documentaries will be more and more frequent.

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

The International Movement of Documentarists, that is growing in the whole
world, cannot afford not to analyze and unmask the historic havoc played by
Imperialism and censorship as its fascist expression. This is as urgent as its
theoretical and

methodological development side by side with the peoples that are struggling
for liberation.

Direct or indirect censorship, whether ideological or economic, expresses the
fascist parasitism and degradation of Capitalism which, leaning on policemen
of conscience intends to keep watch over information, reality and ideas.
Censorship puts forward a civil war of meanings. Not having understood the
economic roots of Imperialism, without a profound diagnosis of its political and
social implications, and not considering censorship the worst enemy of the
documentary field, it is impossible to take even one step forward towards
solving the current practical tasks of the International Movement of
Documentarists.

http://www.documentalistas.orq.ar/festival.shtml

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Report of the book launch for Ruth Rikowski’s book

‘Globalisation, Information and Libraries: the implications of
the World Trade Organisation’s GATS and TRIPS Agreements’
Chandos publishers: Oxford, 2005
ISBN 1 84334 084 4 (pbk); 1 84334 002 5 (hbdk)

Held at London South Bank University, Keyworth Centre,
on 26 th April 2005

Ruth Rikowski got her first book published with Chandos publishers in
February 2005, and had a very successful book launch for it at London South
Bank University on 26 th April 2005, where some 70 people attended. Her book
builds on her many published articles on the topic of the General Agreement
on Trade in Services (GATS) and the agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

Martha Spiess, who has worked with Indymedia Maine, came over from the
States to video the launch, primarily for the purpose of sharing the information
and ideas with interested folks in the US and Canada. The speakers at the
launch included Dr Lee Rose, Dave Black, Linda Kaucher, Professor Dave
Hill, George Bell, Matti Kohonen, Tom Lines and Dr Glenn Rikowski.

The Vice-Chancellor at London South Bank University, Professor Deian
Hopkin, introduced the book launch saying it was the longest programme for
a launch that he had ever seen, and that it looked very exciting.. He spoke
about the wonderful Keyworth Centre building that the launch was held in.

Professor Hopkin said that he first properly met Ruth at a David Gurteen
Knowledge Cafe, on an occasion when there was lots of knowledge but no
cafe! He described Ruth as a distinguished writer with an eclectic range. In
the latest elections he noted that often not much consideration was really
being given to some of the important issues, such as the issues contained in
Ruth’s book, and that we are often powerless against overwhelming forces.

He said that Ruth has a lot to say about issues and that her book has lots of
data and information but more importantly, powerful arguments. Ruth’s book
brings an understanding about issues not just about libraries, but about the
wider issue of intellectual property rights. He is sure that Ruth’s book will do
well and is glad of her association with them. He concluded saying that,
hopefully, we can discuss these issues at South Bank, even if in the political
arena they do not do so.

Ruth Rikowski then spoke, saying that it was all very exciting - getting her
first book published. She dedicated her book to her Aunt Olive, because if it
had not been for her aunt encouraging and giving her that initial inspiration as
a child (her aunt had been a teacher) she would never have gone to university
and she would never have written her book.

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Ruth joined a group called Information for Social Change in 2001, which
challenges the dominant paradigms of library and information work. She was
then delighted to find that there were some librarians around the world that
had investigated the topic of the GATS and TRIPS - the 2 agreements that
are being developed at the WTO that could affect libraries, in particular. This
included the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions
(IFLA), the European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation
Associations (EBLIDA) and Canada (particularly the British Columbia Library
Association and the Canadian Library Association).

Ruth went on the You and Yours programme on Radio 4 and spoke about her
fear that public libraries might be turned into private companies at some point,
and that the GATS could assist with this process. A lot of people say this is
scare-mongering talk, but she has given the example so many times of the
private company Instant Library Ltd that ran the library service in the London
Borough of Haringey for 3 years. This was the first time that a private
company had taken over the running of a whole public library service in
England. It has now gone back to the local authority, but once it has
happened once it can happen again. It is a slippery slope. She fears that such
scenarios might result in poor and disadvantaged people having to pay to go
into their local library. Going back to her childhood, she loved her public
library and was a passionate reader, and the thought that this might be under
threat greatly disturbed her.

Ruth read the TRIPS agreement in some detail. Various intellectual property
rights (IPRs) are covered in the TRIPS agreement, including copyright,
patents, trademarks, geographical indications, industrial designs and trade
secrets. However, what she discovered was that the TRIPS is purely
interested in the trading of these intellectual property rights, and is not really
concerned about anything else much apart from that. It is not interested in
other IPR issues such as in endeavouring to maintain the balance in
copyright, for example.

It came to Ruth, in a ‘flash of inspiration’, that services and intellectual
property rights were being transformed into international tradable commodities
and that these commodities were being sold in the market place for profit.
Items that had been outside of the trade agenda that were dear to our heart
were being pushed on to the trade agenda. Furthermore, value that was
extracted from labour was being embedded in these commodities. In this way,
global capitalism was being perpetuated, and Ruth fears about how this will
affect ordinary people.

NGOs and various other groups on the left have looked at the implications of
these agreements in other areas, but libraries, specifically, have not been
examined before. So, Ruth’s area is new. Libraries can often be marginalised,
but surely they are crucial as part of a civilised society, and that we need to try
to preserve them.

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Her book proved to be a very large project and very demanding. It also had a
very clear political message, that she does not like global capitalism and
thinks that we should look for an alternative. She provided lots of references
in an endeavour to try to persuade people of her political message, and to
show that she had put a lot of thought into it..

Ruth emphasised that there is a need to try to break out of conformist politics,
and this can be done by writing and having meetings and discussions. Also,
that there is a need for more debate. Traditional politics is more or less dead
and that there is nothing to choose between the two main parties in the UK.
The Labour Party is now a Tory Mark II party.. She found the recent election
campaign very boring - Tony Blair or Michael Howard. It is like choosing
between Daz and Persil - it makes no difference.

The book had an international perspective, and Ruth examined a number of
different countries in it, including USA, Canada, Europe, Japan, New Zealand,
Australia, the developing world in general, India, South Africa and the UK.

She placed all her findings within an Open Marxist theoretical perspective,
arguing that we need to make Marxism applicable for the global capitalist
world that we live in today. Marx began his analysis of capitalism with the
commodity, in Capital, Vol. 1. This is where our analysis must begin. We need
to go back to Marx’s basic understanding of capitalism, and make it applicable
for the global capitalist world that we live in today, she said. The logic of
capitalism is the commodification of all that surrounds us. The GATS and
TRIPS assists with this commodification process, Ruth said, as services and
intellectual property rights are being transformed into international tradable
commodities. And this is why we have to try to take hold of the situation and
look for an alternative.

Ruth spoke at a conference recently at Cambridge, and George Monbiot was
also on the programme. One of the other speakers on the programme was a
representative from the WTO. This man seemed quite ‘down’ that people
were not currently negotiating/discussing issues around the GATS, and that
they could not move the GATS programme forward. To this extent, the anti-
global capitalist movement has been successful, Ruth said. Originally, many
thought that our public services were safe from the GATS. The agreement is
complex. But today, there are many elements of competition in our public
services, and so they become vulnerable to the GATS. It is now generally
recognised that our public services fall under the GATS. This threatens our
way of life.

Ruth emphasises how the media is forever trying to pull the wool over our
eyes and that we need to get beyond the soap, froth and rubbish and that
writing a book provides a wonderful vehicle to enable us to do this.

Then, Dr Lee Rose, Head of the Department of Mathematics, Statistics
and Foundation Studies, London South Bank University spoke. He paid
tribute to Ruth for her hard work leading up to the culmination of her wonderful
book. 4-5 years ago Ruth was looking for work at South Bank. He found
himself talking to this “infectious, tenacious, intelligent and bright individual” -

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

and that, of course, they took her on! She worked with them on the KM
masters course and Ruth was instrumental in implementing that course.

He said that Ruth is a wonderful conversationalist. They have discussed a
number of issues together, particularly in the area of her Marxist perspective
on knowledge management and intellectual capital. He agrees with Ruth that
we definitely do need more debate. He hopes that Ruth’s book will help to
open up that debate, and he is sure that it will.

Lee said that what is also quite exciting is that Ruth is now starting work on
her second book - she is editing a book on knowledge management. He said
that she is a very energetic person, and that he does not know where she
gets the energy from, and that she has co-opted him on to the project. He
concluded by saying that he thinks that this is the beginning of great things for
her.

Dave Black, Author of Helen MacFarlane and Co-Editor of Hobgoblin

introduced a Marxist dimension. He began by pointing out that the latest issue
of Hobgoblin has ‘Marx Reloaded’ as its caption. This is slightly referencing
the Hollywood movie - The Matrix’, where one of the characters says that the
Matrix is everywhere and is all around us. This is a world that has been pulled
over your eyes, in order to blind you to the truth. Capital is a bit like that, Dave
says. But humans are not virtual entities of someone else’s imagination, but
are flesh and blood, whose power to labour is extracted by capital and
prevents us from being truly human. Only in capitalism is there a never-ending
drive to produce ever more value and more wealth, rather than satisfying
human need.

Dave said that when they started the online version of Hobgoblin they were
delighted to receive an article by Ruth, about globalising intellectual property
rights. He points out that in her book, Ruth offers us various explanations for
TINA (the There is No Alternative philosophy), including religion, human
nature and the death of communism. Ruth goes on to focus on Marx and
Postone in her analysis, arguing that services and intellectual property rights
are being transformed into international tradable commodities, and that value
that is being extracted from labour becomes embedded in these commodities.

Linda Kaucher has given a lot of talks about the trade agenda and has
attended many important trade-related meetings. She is also interested in the
trade/gender issue. Linda said that Ruth’s book is important because it brings
the trade agenda to the UK and to the developed world in general. Trade and
development are usually put together in the same breath. Trade is seen to be
‘over there’.. This might all sound nice and kind but this approach keeps trade
off centre stage. This focus runs across many areas such as the EU Services
Directive and the Trade Justice Movement. Basically, civil society in general
supports the view that trade is a development issue.

MPs are not interested in trade much and there is little debate about it. It is a
trick, to keep it as a development issue, and is in the interest of big business
to do this. Linda was at the WTO in the last few days. There were quite a few

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

UK parliamentarians there and they wanted more information about the UK
trade agenda and Ruth’s book provides them with this information.

Parliamentary scrutiny also keeps trade off the agenda in the developed
world. There is a parliamentary committee for each department, but it is only
the International Development Committee that looks at the trade agenda. The
DTI does not focus on it.

Linda concludes by saying that Ruth’s book could be a definitive start on a
questioning of the whole neo-liberal agenda.

Professor Dave Hill began his talk by saying that Ruth and Glenn Rikowski
have had a real impact on him. He used to be a ‘streetfighter’, an agitator, a
politician and a trade union organiser and then he became an academic.

Then, together with Mike Cole he set up the Hillcole Group of Radical Left
Educators in 1989, and they all used to sit in Tony Benn’s front room and
discuss and write about radical left issues and that they all learnt from each
other. Following on from this, Dave set up the Institute for Education Policy
Studies, and then the Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies.

During the time of the Hillcole Group and when Tony Green was teaching at
the Institute of Education, University of London, in 1992, Dave found himself
sitting next to Glenn Rikowski and Marxist theory was being discussed. Dave
knows how to rabble rouse but he did not know much theory. And Glenn
pushed him. Through Glenn, he met Ruth. He read Glenn’s work and then he
read Ruth’s work. And all this made him think. Thus, Glenn and Ruth pushed
him and he has learnt a lot from them, particularly in regard to Marxist
analysis of society.

Dave then said that what Ruth has done for libraries, he has done in the area
of education. It is a direct parallel. Dave has been working for the International
Labour Organisation (ILO) for the last 6 months, looking at the impact of neo¬
liberalism on schools. He has been looking at the impact on schools, school
meals, school access etc. and his work falls under 3 main categories. Firstly,
the impact on workers, secondly, the impact on access, particularly in regard
to who gets frozen out by race and class and thirdly, issues around
democracy - who makes the main decisions in regard to schools? Is it the
WTO, is it big business or is it local schools or what?

Dave concludes by highlighting the fact that there are gross inequalities in the
world and that:

“This is why I fight. I do the best I can. And what I do has been
influenced by the work of Glenn Rikowski and the work of Ruth
Rikowski.”

George Bell from London South Bank University said that he had been
looking at how education can enhance students for themselves, rather than as

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

a vehicle for enabling others. There is a need to challenge the existing
paradigms and to be constructive participants. He teaches international
management which includes looking at transferring knowledge across a
borderless world. George is trying to take some of Ruth’s ideas, and to place
them, in particular, into the areas of international culture. Furthermore, he
says that MBAs in themselves are becoming commodities.

Having spoken to Ruth he now feels a depth of responsibility in regard to the
way in which students at university are taught. We need to challenge
students and to develop a critical pedagogy, he says. George concludes by
saying that Ruth has given them an opportunity and they now need to take the
debate forward. He thanks Ruth for helping them to refocus in the publication
of her book.

Matti Kohonen, one of the Founding members of ATTAC, UK asks -
‘Where does radical politics take place these days’? For him, the most
interesting political debate recently did not take place in the UK or USA
elections, but at Porte Allegro at the World Social Forum (WSF). There were
many different groups of people there, such as NGOs, academics, trade
unionists and activists. These people are thinking about some of the foremost
issues that are happening today and Ruth discusses some of these issues in
her book.

He likes to consider what the alternatives are and to look ahead. We do not
like the commodification of knowledge, but despite the GATS and TRIPS -
what can be done? Matti offers some innovative, creative alternatives.

CopyLeft and the Creative Commons - with CopyLeft and the Creative
Commons Institute the author reserves and lists certain rights that they want
to protect and say that, apart from that, their work can be used and shared.
This is a significant movement and was launched in UK at the beginning of
this year.

Free and Open Source Software Movement -this is involved with keeping the
source code open, so that it can be improved and there can be a peer-review
of how the programme was made. This is knowledge creation in a non-
commodified way, Matti says, or at least, it opens up the opportunity for it to
be non-commodified.

Another project that interests Matti is the World Social Library that is being set
up at the World Social Forum. The idea is that people take a book along on a
topic that is relevant to the issues that are being discussed, and that a ‘Library
of Alternatives’ is developed, which will also be online. Then, many more
people will be able to read the books and benefit.

Matti spoke about ATTAC, which is where Matti and Ruth met. He was one of
the founding members of ATTAC, UK, in 2001. ATTAC was a response to a
perception within Europe that the market had taken over democracy. That
market forces were dominating rather than elected politicians and elected
governments. Then, ATTAC took on a number of other issues, including the

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

GATS. Ruth became involved and said -‘Let’s start a working group on
GATS’.. They all thought it was a good idea and Matti said it was a good
event. He is really glad that a lot of us are thinking about these issues, and he
thinks that the book will contribute in a great way.

Matti concludes by saying that he is glad that Ruth’s book is out and that he
congratulates Ruth.

Afterword: ATT AC GATS event at LSE - Ruth spoke briefly about the ATTAC
GATS events at LSE, which was held there in November 2002. About 70
people attended and it was a very successful event. There were various
workshops, considering the implications of the GATS for different public
service sectors, such as libraries, education, health, security and pensions.
For more information about this event, see the ejournal Information for Social
Change, at: http://www.libr.org/ISC/articles/17-Rikowski-3.html

Tom Lines, Consultant in Trade and Development started by saying that
he had been at an election hustings for the Green Party on the day of the
book launch - he left the Labour Party a long time ago. Or rather - it left him.

He explained how he and Ruth got to know each other a few years ago, when
they were both concerned about the impact of the GATS on our public
services, and that they had both worked together on the area. This was
shortly after the World Development Movement began its campaign on the
GATS (but it could only focus on the developing world) and the Green Party
then took up the issue.

Then, Tom went to work at Oxfam and now he is an independent trade
consultant and has been working on the area of trade and policy more
broadly. He has been focusing, in particular, on commodity prices and export
issues for poor countries. There is a lot of pressure on developing countries to
open up their markets, which further impoverishes them.

Tom says that Ruth’s book had made an important contribution. The GATS
operates in many different fields and there are many complexities. It is very
important for people in their own public service sectors to consider the
implications of the GATS for their own sectors and this is what Ruth has done
for libraries. He commends her book to everyone.

Afterword: GATS picket outside DTI - Ruth and Tom exchanged thoughts
about how they had both been involved in a very effective picket outside the
Department of Trade and Industry on the GATS. An A5 leaflet was produced
which explained what the GATS was, what it implied, and asked people to
write to their MPs about it. They handed it out to people outside the DTI in
Victoria Street and civil servants were walking along the street, reading the
flyer.

(N.B. Tom, Ruth, Linda and Glenn also spoke at a session on the GATS that
was held at Sussex University in May 2002).

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Dr Glenn Rikowski, Senior Lecturer in Education Studies, University
College Northampton and author of The Battle in Seattle: its significance
for education, 2001, focused his talk largely around his book on Seattle. At
the end of 1999 he suddenly found himself watching the news and seeing that
amazing events were happening at the World Trade Organisation in Seattle.

It was going out all over the airwaves and it was on various Internet sites etc.
There were students, trade unionists, NGOs etc - people from 98 different
countries were bringing the WTO Ministerial meeting to a full-stop. Amazing!
People were fighting back against the rule of capital and this was happening
on an international basis and in a creative way.

What did Seattle have to do with education, Glenn pondered? This question
was important given the fact that his job was as an Education Researcher at
the University of Birmingham. He also had to find out what the GATS was,
and he looked at the actual agreement. He discovered that in 1994 we had
signed away our primary, secondary and higher education services (and
some aspects of further education, but not all of them) to the WTO and had
committed ourselves to the GATS. But after Seattle a poll was undertaken
and only 12% of the population had heard of the GATS. This was how little
was known about the GATS.

The first part of The Battle in Seattle is about the WTO and the GATS and the
second half is a Marxist analysis of this - to try to understand what was going
on. So, the final product, The Battle in Seattle, is a mixture of the personal,
political, theoretical and a detailed analysis of events.

After this, he got involved in a lot of activist stuff for a couple of years. This
included picketing outside DTI with Ruth and Tom, and giving speeches at
various universities and trade unions etc.

Glenn posed the question - ‘What does all this say for an alternative way of
life’? Companies making profit out of services. What does this tell us about
society? Do we want to live in a society where companies run schools and
libraries for profit?

He ends on a semi-autobigraphical note. “I am in Haralambos!”, he says.

What is Haralambos, you might well ask. It is the Bible for A’ Level Sociology
students. In the 6 th edition there is a summary of The Battle in Seattle. Glenn’s
work. So, what is certain is that A’ level Sociology students will be reading
something about what happened in Seattle in late 1999. He concludes by
saying that, may be, this will help students to start to think of alternative ways
of living and to some kind of realm of human freedom.

Ruth’s concluding comment - Let us, indeed, hope that this will be the start
of more debate and then to a deeper, more theoretical understanding and
analysis of global capitalism, which can then pave the way for us to look for
an alternative.

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Ruth Rikowski:

Author of Globalisation, Information and Libraries: the implications of
the

World Trade Organisation’s GATS and TRIPS agreements

Chandos publishers: Oxford, 2005

ISBN 1 84334 084 4 (pbk); 1 84334 002 5 (hbdk)

http://www.chandospublishing.com/catalogue/record detail.php?recordl

D=35

Orders to :

Turpin Distribution Services Ltd, Stratton Business Park, Pegasus Drive,

Biggleswade, Bedfordshire. SGI8 8TQ

Tel No. +44 (0) 1767 604951 Fax No. +44 (0) 1767 601640

Email: custserv@turpin-distribution.com

(information obtained from the DVD of the book
launch that was made by Martha Spiess from the

States)

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

BOOK REVIEWS

A World to Win: a rough guide to a future without global
capitalism by Paul Feldman and Corinna Lotz, Lupus Books,
£9.99, 370 pp., ISBN 0952345412

Reviewed by John Pateman

This is vital reading for those who want to liberate the planet from the grip of
transnational capitalism. A World to Win shows how corporate-driven
globalisation has penetrated every corner of society. It offers ideas and
proposals for freeing economic and cultural resources from the grip of profit
and capital accumulation. The book suggests not-for-profit solutions to the
ecological crisis and proposes a restructuring of the state in favour of
democratic participation and control.

Globalisation and its Consequences

Anyone who is under any illusions that neo-liberal capitalism is unsustainable
and contains the seeds of its own destruction should read this book. It is
packed with information, statistics and case studies which demonstrate the
unequal allocation of power and resources around the planet. For example,
the richest 5% of the world’s people receive 114 times the income of the
poorest 1%. And the richest 1% receive as much as the poorest 57%. The
connections between issues such as alienation, privatisation, poverty and the
power of transnational corporations are clearly made and there is a good
analysis of the transition from the welfare state to the market state. There are
sections on the health service, housing and education.

The chapter on all consuming culture is of particular relevance to library and
information workers. The role of the internet, the digital divide and the
concentration of media ownership are considered. The use of branding and
the role of sport in big business are also covered. The conclusion is that all
forms of culture - from libraries to fine arts - are being converted from public
goods into tools that service the needs of global capital. The solution offered
is culture for all, wresting creativity back from the corporations and
establishing democratic ownership, funding and control of the arts. This would
lead to greater development and wider access accompanied by cultural
education.

The chapter on the environment is perhaps the most powerful of all, and
there is a very strong ecological theme running through the whole book. The
effects of climate change are explained in graphic detail and I particularly liked
the description of global warming as a Weapon of Mass Destruction. The
effect on human health and genetically modified food is also explored. It is
made clear that science is now at the behest of big business, who fund and
dictate research and distort its results to meet bottom line imperatives. The
program for action includes production under the control of the workforce,
social ownership of agriculture and the land, research for human
understanding not profit and science for human development not capitalism.

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Ideas for the 21 st Century

The authors offer a stimulating collection of suggestions as to how the world
can break free from global capitalism and work to meet human needs rather
than generate ever increasing profits. This will require a transformation of the
economy. The China syndrome is given as an example of pitfalls to avoid, but
I would argue that China is modernising its economy in order to develop its
people. The commanding heights of the Chinese economy are still in the
hands of the state, which continues to be dictated by the principles of Marx
and Lenin introduced by the Revolution in 1949. In some senses China has
lost its way and departed from the path set by Chairman Mao - such as the
concept and reality of the “iron rice bowl” - but in other respects China stands
as a socialist alternative to western capitalism and is able to influence major
institutions such as the WTO.

Another country which we can learn from is Cuba and I was very surprised to
see no references to Cuba - or Venezuela - in the index, despite the success
of these countries in challenging neo liberalism and building socialist
alternatives. For example, the authors argue in favour of local, regional and
national Assemblies to ensure that sufficient capacity exists to satisfy needs.
This is exactly what has been happening in Cuba since the 1970s when a
system of Peoples Power was introduced. Many of the revolutionary ideas
promoted in this book are already being delivered by revolutionary Cuba who
have demonstrated since 1959 that socialism in one country is possible.
Witness the Cuban education, health and social welfare systems, plus their
assistance to other countries on the developing world. Capitalism is a world
system and should be replaced with a new world system.. But to say that
“there is no national solution to the crisis” is a false analysis.

One section of the book which I particularly enjoyed - and which did mention
Cuba - was the transatlantic dialogue on education and the future between
Glenn Rikowski (Senior Lecturer in Education Studies in the School of
Education at University College Northampton) and Rich Gibson (Associate
Professor of Education at San Diego State University, California). Glenn
Rikowski, a highly respected and influential UK educational practitioner and
activist, asks for some examples of “actually existing forms of socialism, or
attempts at creating socialism.” In his reply Rich Gibson says that “the efforts
for revolution were the Paris Commune, the Russian Revolution, the Chinese
Revolution, and the Cuban revolution. Each of these battles built on the other.
The Cuban revolution showed that a revolution was possible even at the
fingertips of the empire, and the potential role of socialist education for a new
kind of humanity.”

A revolutionary change is necessary

Notions that humans are inherently selfish and that we have reached the “end
of history” are deconstructed. The ideas of the status quo and the all
consuming ideology - that there is no alternative to capitalism - are also
challenged. A theory of knowledge is presented along with a rough guide to
materialist dialectics and concepts such as negation and contradiction.
Questions such as “do we live in a post modern world ?” and “is globalisation

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

just a policy ?” are posed and answered. It is at this point that the politics of
the authors become apparent and it is clear why there are no references to
Cuba (which they regard as state capitalism). “The Socialist Workers Party
(SWP) are presently the most influential Left Group in Britain, and what they
say and do is considered by significant numbers of people as an expression
of Marxism”.. I would challenge this statement on both of its assertions. The
authors then go on to criticise the SWP for regarding corporate driven
globalisation as a policy question first and foremost. “Their aim is to try and
change the policies of the capitalist nation state rather than striving to
overthrow this state. This is the reality behind the radical rhetoric.”

A case is then made for “a truly revolutionary party”.. The role of this party is
defined in terms of training and development, democratic discussion, political
intervention, a rallying point and the struggle for power. The way that a party
functions is described - such as developing new policies - and “the real
origins of Stalinism are explained.” By now it is clear that the authors
subscribe to yet another strand of Trotskyism and belong to the faction known
as the Movement for a Socialist Future (MSF) which “campaigns to defeat
capitalist globalisation through policies of social ownership and mass
democratic control.” If you visit the MSF website at msf@socialistfuture.orq.uk
you will learn more about the movement and its other publications including
Gerry Healy: a Revolutionary life.

Gerry Healy was a controversial British Trotskyist leader, born on 3 December
1913 in Cork, Ireland. He received a minor education from the Christian
Brothers and emigrated to Britain at the age of 14 to work as a radio operator
on freighting ships. While working on these ships, he joined the Communist
Party of Great Britain's (CPGB) youth wing. He made a reputation for being a
good speaker and organizer. In 1939, he joined the Trotskyist Workers
International League (WIL) and was consequently expelled from the CPGB.
Angering the WIL leaders, he was expelled from that organization as well in
1943 for "personal opportunism and political degeneration." Healy then
founded "The Club" and advocated "entryism," a campaign in which a small
number of well-organised and disciplined revolutionaries would join the
Labour Party, in power after winning the 1945 general election, and win over
militant workers to Trotskyism. His entryist tactics found a hearing in the
leadership of the Fourth International (FI), and in 1950 the FI ordered their
Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) to dissolve into Healy's Club, forming
the Socialist Labour League (SLL).

In 1953, Healy broke with the FI's "revisionist" leadership (Pablo's
International Secretariat) and became a leader of a rival organization, the
International Committee (1C). He centralized the SLL's membership, expelling
dissident factions of Trotskyists. Within the Labour Party, the SLL railed
against the "anti-working-class" Labour leaders. In 1959, the SLL was
expelled from the Labour Party. Healy's organization grew during the 1960's,
gaining the support of influential celebrities which included Venessa Redgrave
and (reportedly) John Lennon. In 1969 he began publishing Workers' Press
and in 1973 reorganized the SLL as the Workers' Revolutionary Party (WRP).
In 1985 he was expelled from the WRP and the International Committee and

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Healy subsequently formed a rival organization in 1987, the Marxist Party..

He moved away from Trotskyism, supporting the policies of Mikhail
Gorbachev in the Soviet Union. He died in London on December 14, 1989.

His ashes are buried in Highgate Cemetery, London, near the grave of Karl
Marx.

So the Movement for a Socialist Future is the latest in a long line of
opportunist, divisive and sectarian Trotskyist ventures which have split the
Left into ever smaller and divergent factions. Instead of uniting to defeat the
real enemies - capitalism, neo liberalism and globalisation - these tiny parties
spend all their time, energy and resources fighting each other. However, I do
not want to end on a negative note or detract from the many fine arguments
and analyses put forward in this book. To quote from their concluding
paragraph “You have the opportunity to make a difference, to contribute to a
new chapter in human history. You should take it and make it. In 1848, in their
stirring Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels penned two
famous sentences that still have real significance for today: “The proletarians
have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.”

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Ruth Rikowski, Globalisation, Information and Libraries,
Chandos Publishing (Oxford) Limited, 2005, 393 pages, ISBN
84334 084 4, £39

Reviewed by John Pateman

This very important book looks at the implications of the World Trade
Organisation, (WTO), the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)
and the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
agreements. The author examines these issues from an Open Marxist
perspective. The result is an extremely well written political analysis of the
nature of capitalism and what this might mean for libraries in the future.

Part One introduces Globalisation and the WTO. Globalisation - or global
capitalism - is the latest and most developed form of capitalism. The WTO
exists to sustain and develop global capitalism. It is an undemocratic
organisation and favours the rich countries and big business. “But even if the
WTO were to be abolished tomorrow something else would replace it,
because this is the logic of global capitalism”.

Part Two focuses on the GATS, which seeks to convert public goods such as
health , education and libraries into commodities which can be traded in the
market place for profit. Examples are given of the commercialisation,
privatisation and capitalisation of library services in the UK. It is argued that
Best Value, Public Library Standards and the People’s Network are part of
this process. There is some awareness of and resistance to GATS from the
library world, most notably from Canadian library organisations.

Part Three considers TRIPS, which aims to convert intellectual property rights
(including copyright, patents and trade marks) into commodities which can be
bought and sold. TRIPS is more concerned with economic rights, rather than
moral rights. For example, TRIPS can have a very negative impact on
traditional knowledge. Indigenous medicines are patented by pharmaceutical
companies without any recognition or reward given to their creators. TRIPS
also has serious implications for the library and information profession with
regard to free access to information, intellectual freedom, freedom of
expression and freedom of information.

Part Four is an Open Marxist theoretical perspective on WTO, GATS and
TRIPS. It challenges the widely accepted view that There Is No Alternative
(TINA) to capitalism. Marx’s theory of value is central to an understanding of
intellectual labour, knowledge management and the knowledge revolution.
GATS is about transforming state funded library services into internationally
tradable commodities. TRIPS is about transforming intellectual labour into
intellectual capital. The objective is to create trade, trade and more trade. But
the author ends on a positive note:

“There is only one real solution - to terminate global capitalism, and to
replace it with a better, kinder, fairer social, economic, and political system -
to replace it with socialism, and eventually with communism...Let humans

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

rejoice, then, in the world that they have developed with their labour - do not
let them be dominated by it. Let us look towards a better future and a brighter
world.”

The book is well laid out, with clear type, logical headings and an excellent
bibliography and index. It is suitable for library practitioners, academics,
students and working people who are interested in WTO, GATs and TRIPs..
Like Marx himself, Ruth Rikowski seeks not only to understand the world, but
to change it as well.

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Ruth Rikowski. Globalisation, information and libraries: the
implications of the World Trade Organisation’s GATS and
TRIPS Agreements, Chandos Publishing, 2005, ISBN: 1-84334-
084-4 (paperback), 1-84334-092-5 (hardback)

Reviewed by John Vincent

As Ruth Rikowski herself says, very little attention is being paid to the
implications of GATS and TRIPS, and this important book starts this process.

the continued success of capitalism is dependent upon the continued
creation and extraction of value from labour, and that only labour can ever
create value. Capitalism goes through various phases ... now we are moving
into the knowledge revolution ... in the knowledge revolution, value is
increasingly being extracted from intellectual labour, which is then embedded
in intangible goods/commodities ...

Thus it becomes necessary to examine areas such as intellectual property
rights, services, knowledge, information, brand names, white-collar and
intellectual work, skills, human capital, intellectual capital, ideas and
brainpower.” [pp4-5]

The book is in four parts:

« Globalisation and the World Trade Organisation
m The General Agreement on Trade in Services [GATS]

« Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
[TRIPS]

m An Open Marxist theoretical perspective on global capitalism and the
World Trade Organisation.

Part 1 looks briefly at globalisation and some of its effects (using Glenn
Rikowski’s “Four dimensions of globalisation”, ppl 2-14), and then goes on to
examine the role of the World Trade Organisation [WTO], assessing the range
of contradictory views on its usefulness and whether it should be retained.

The book makes it very clear just how unfair the decision-making and
weightings of the WTO are.

Part 2 then gives an overview of GATS (with clear definitions) and shows the
links between the GATS and “the commercialisation, privatisation and
capitalisation agenda of state-funded services” [p43ff]. This part continues by
looking at the reactions of different organisations to the GATS and the likely
implications for libraries and cultural services, starting with an international
perspective, and looking in some depth at definitions of ‘public goods 1 , ‘private
goods’ and ‘commodities’ - this is because, whilst libraries are often defined
as ‘public goods 1 , there is a clear shift away from ‘public goods’ towards
‘private goods 1 , which, Ruth Rikowski argues, is being “aided and abetted by
the GATS and TRIPS” [p56].

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Moreover, it is clear that library (or library-related) services can fall within
sections of the GATS - and, indeed, a number of countries has already
signed up and committed themselves to the GATS (18 by 2004). However, at
the same time, there is clear concern being expressed by some nations’
library associations (eg the Canadian Library Association).

Ruth Rikowski also outlines the issues in the UK - as she says, “[t]here is still
a lack of awareness about the GATS in general, let alone the implications for
libraries and information both in the UK and indeed internationally” [p94].

Part 3 looks at what the WTO has agreed in relation to TRIPS, and then
relates this to copyright, information and libraries, both internationally and also
in relation to the UK. As Ruth says, “in this book I am arguing that the TRIPS
is about transforming information, knowledge and ideas into intellectual
property rights which can then be traded on the global market in the form of
internationally tradable commodities. Furthermore, TRIPS is concerned with
the trading of these intellectual property rights, and is not concerned with
moral, humane and public service ethos issues” (pi87).

Finally, in Part 4, Ruth looks at the implications of GATS and TRIPS from an
Open Marxist approach.

It is clear that Ruth is developing a new way of looking at information, libraries
and society, and, in Part 4, she applies the Open Marxist approach to these
issues - pioneering work. There is so much to read and think about here, that
a review cannot really do this book full justice. I thought, therefore, that it
might be most useful to focus particularly on the chapters on the GATS and
libraries, especially as this is the area I know best!

Ruth places public libraries firmly in the area of ‘public good’ (and uses Frank
Webster’s 1999 article to do this). She then looks at some of the key critiques
of public libraries: I think she too readily accepts the positive spin about high
levels of visits and public library use (there’s a big difference between visits
and library use), and is perhaps overly critical of competition: whilst libraries
need to be aware of the pitfalls of operating in a competitive way,
nevertheless they do also need to keep a sharp eye on what other providers
are doing - otherwise, as has happened in the past, they may find themselves
done out of a role!

She then investigates the impact of the GATS (and other commercialisation)
on libraries, and this analysis is one of the book’s real strengths. She starts by
looking at commercialisation, and, quite rightly, is critical of the emphasis
placed on income generation and the need to see library users and potential
users as ‘markets’.. The book could in addition, I think, have looked at the
changes that have taken place in local government budget processes, which
have led to the need for income and expenditure to be ‘balanced’ (and
therefore have made it increasingly difficult to break out of the income
generation trap), and the dilemma that libraries face if they are, on the one
hand, to generate income and, on the other, to tackle social exclusion.

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

She then goes on to look at the privatisation of libraries - and sounds a
warning note which may already be becoming too late. Two areas that have
developed since Ruth wrote this have added to serious concerns about
privatisation: firstly, the development of ‘call centres’ in public library services,
which are increasingly being run by commercial organisations (such as
Capita), and which are intended to replace much of the face-to-face and/or
personal contact with individual libraries with a centralised approach; and the
new joint venture between Walsall Council and Fujitsu.

Ruth goes on to look critically at the role of Best Value and Library Standards.

I understand - and, to some extent, share her concerns - but also think that
there is an urgent need for public libraries to be accountable and monitored in
order to ensure that they really are fulfilling Government and other
requirements and are really making the right efforts to reach the whole
population. Without mechanisms such as Best Value (now Comprehensive
Performance Assessment) and the Standards, this would be extremely
difficult.

I think Ruth is absolutely right in her recognition of the dangers posed by the
GATS and TRIPS, and has argued persuasively about the problems posed by
increasing commercialisation and privatisation of libraries, of a ‘public good’..
Her Open Marxist analysis of the issues - and her analysis of the work of the
WTO and the threats of global capitalism - are ground-breaking and
extremely important.

However, I think that, at the same time, there is a danger in assuming that any
sort of managerial approach to issues is, of its very nature, wrong.. This
applies to the discussion of the Standards (mentioned above) and even more
to her view of Newham Library Service’s restructuring (pp132-133)- I am not
convinced that a library review is necessarily going to “provide a wealth of
opportunities for further marketisation, commodification and privatisation of
libraries” (pi 33): it may be urgently required if the best service is to be
provided.

These minor quibbles aside, however, this is a book of immense importance -
and, at the same time, manages to be highly readable! We should all read it -
and think twice before looking at money-making schemes!

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

E-Book Publishing Success: how anyone can write,
compile and sell e-books on the Internet

By Kingsley Oghojafor

Chandos Publishing: Oxford, 2005
ISBN 1-84334-099-2): £39.00, 152pp

This is a very useful book for anyone that wants to find out about how to
publish an ebook. It goes right through from the initial thought processes that
need to be undergone, such as ‘do I have enough to write about, to be able to
write an e-book’ , through to the practical stages involved and finally how to
market and promote it.

The book is divided into 2 parts. Part 1 is entitled ‘Writing and compiling your
e-book’ and Part 2 is entitled ‘Publishing and marketing your e-book to
millions of people’.. Part 1 considers various issues such as choosing a
suitable subject to write an e-book about, researching the market, compiling
the e-book and copyright protection for e-books. Part 2 explores topics such
as uploading the e-book to the Internet, designing a website for the e-book,
selling, promoting and marketing the e-book and using affiliate programmes
and pay-per-click to sell your e-book.

The author’s intention is to demonstrate to the reader that if anyone really
wants to write an e-book then it is quite possible for them to do so. This is a
very important and optimistic message, I think, and hopefully will help some
people to overcome some potential barriers that they might mistakenly think
they are up against. The author demonstrates that this form of publishing
should open up a lot of new opportunities, to enable some people to publish
their works, in a way in which they would never have been able to do so
before. Oghojafor begins his book by saying:

“E-book technology has provided an opportunity for anyone to write
their own

highly profitable e-book with little or no money.” (p.xiii)

E-book publishing is increasingly quite rapidly. According to an Open E-book
Forum, a trade and standards organization dedicated to the promotion of
electronic publishing, there was a growth of 25% in e-books for the third
quarter of 2004 compared with that of 2003.

Oghojafor emphasizes the fact that the writer of an e-book needs to be
passionate and enthusiastic about the subject that they choose to write about.
Indeed, this extends to the writing of any book, I would suggest - whether this
be a hard copy book or an e -book. However, not all authors will start off with
the notion that they just want to write an e-book, no matter what the subject
matter is. Whilst for some writers this will be true, for others it will be the case
that they want to write on a specific topic, but have chosen to publish through
an e-book for a variety of reasons. The author could, perhaps, have

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

considered this angle more. Furthermore, the way in which the author tries to
persuade the reader that anyone can write an e-book if they really want to is
appealing, although perhaps sometimes unrealistic. Not everyone is as
literate as the author perhaps suggests, and various software packages that
can help with grammar and spelling etc, can only do so much. However, the
general point he makes that writing an e-book is easier than perhaps many
people think, is surely very valid.

The author also explains the technicalities of writing an e-book in some detail,
and this should prove to be very valuable to many people. He considers, for
example, how to convert the information from ordinary text into HTML
(Hypertext Mark-Up Language), and then how to compile the HTML files.

In conclusion, this is a valuable book to anyone that is interested in writing
and publishing an e-book.

There is also a useful index and bibliography

Reviewed by: Ruth Rikowski
See:

http://www.chandospublishing.com/catalogue/record detail.php?recordl

D=38

Orders to :

Turpin Distribution Services Ltd, Stratton Business Park, Pegasus Drive,

Biggleswade, Bedfordshire. SGI8 8TQ

Tel No. +44 (0) 1767 604951 Fax No. +44 (0) 1767 601640

Email: custserv@turpin-distribution.com

See also: www.chandospublishing.com - for general information about
Chandos

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

HELEN MACFARLANE: a feminist, revolutionary journalist
and philosopher in mid-nineteenth-century England

By David Black

Lexington Books, Maryland, USA, 2004
ISBN 0 7391 0863 8(hdbk); 0 7391 0864 6 (pbk)

Helen Macfarlane by Dave Black is an important and valuable book. Black’s
aim is to rescue Helen MacFarlane from obscurity - Helen Macfarlane being
the first person to translate Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto into English.

Dave Black begins his book by referring to the Chartist Movement. One of the
Chartist radicals, George Julian Harney, set up a number of journals, one of
which was Red Republican. One of the most prolific contributors to his
publications, and in particular to Red Republican, was someone that wrote
under the name of ‘Howard Morton’ - and this person was Helen Macfarlane.
Black says that:

MacFarlane was of that generation of post-Napoleonic War “baby boomers”, which
included

other original and radical women writers such as George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), and
the Bronte sisters.. Like these literary contemporaries, Helen Macfarlane had to use a
male nom de plume to get her work into print; but for her, an avowed feminist and
revolutionary, the obscurity inflicted on her by bourgeois male society - and its
historians - was to be near total.

(P-2)

Thus, Macfarlane, like so many women in her day, had to pretend she was a
man in order to get her writing, ideas and work taken seriously and published,
which also, no doubt, played some part in explaining why she disappeared
from the pages of history.

Black emphasises, though, that his book is more of a Biography of an Idea,
because biographical material on Macfarlane is strictly limited. This was not
helped by the fact that she ‘disappeared’ physically in 1851, on New Years
Eve, never to be seen again. As Dave Black says, after 31 st December 1851:

Helen Macfarlane vanishes from history along with her alias, Howard Morton (p. 120)

Altogether she published 12 essays, and Black draws on this material in the
writing of his book.

Dave Black emphasises the fact that for Macfarlane, as for Hegel, the Idea of
Freedom was identified with the Idea of History. Also, that Macfarlane was the
first ‘British Marxist’, and the first British commentator on Hegel’s philosophy
and the first translator of his work into English.

The book begins with a philosophical look at Macfarlane’s view of British
history. Then, Black looks at the economic and political developments in

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

England that helped Marx with his analysis of class struggle in the Communist
Manifesto. From here, Black goes on to examine Hegel’s Idea of Freedom.
This is followed by a look at radical journalism at the time that Macfarlane was
in England. Black concludes by assessing the significance of the historic
encounter between Marx and the English Chartists, and the crucial part that
Helen Macfarlane played in regard to this. All this, then, helps to show the
important role that Macfarlane played in regard to progressing Marxist ideas in
England.

Dave Black discusses ‘Red Republicanism’ in Chapter 2 and begins by talking
about ‘Luddism’. As he says:

Such was the distress caused by the introduction of labor-saving machinery and the
import of cheap shoddy goods that workers smashed the machines in the factories
and burned the “shoddies” at the dockside, (p. 11)

Then, female Chartists movements sprang up in the late 1830s and as Black
said:

Women argued that democracy, once established, would need a new generation
imbued with democratic ideas by Chartist mothers as well as fathers. To impart such
knowledge to their children, women would have to possess it themselves; to get it
they would need the same access as men to political education, (p. 14)

Thus, feminism and various women’s issues were starting to be moved
forward at this time, and Macfarlane was obviously part of this general
movement.

It was only in 1958 that it was discovered that Howard Morton, regular
contributor to Red Republican was, in fact, Helen Macfarlane. It was
discovered by A.R. Schoyen, a scholar from the United States. As Black says:

Macfarlane, a supporter of the “Fraternal Democrats” in Lancashire and one of the
most prolific of Harney’s stable of writers, was forced to adopt a male pseudonym in
order to get her writings into print, (p. 18)

Thus, it has taken about 100 years just to uncover the fact that this significant
person in history, the person that made the Communist Manifesto accessible
to English-speaking readers was a woman, and not a man.

Helen Macfarlane translated the Communist Manifesto in Red Republican, in
1850, in the four issues beginning November 9 th , 1850. Two decades after
that it was reprinted in New York in 1871, in the aftermath of the Paris
Commune. After 1888, though, the Samuel Moore translation of the
Communist Manifesto, undertaken with Engels, superseded Macfarlane’s
version in the English-speaking world.

The only other work of Macfarlane in her own name was a long 3-part essay
that appeared in April, May and June 1850 issues of the Democratic Review,
titled Democracy: Remarks on the Times Apropos of Certain Passages in No.
1 of Thomas Carlyle’s “Latter-Day”pamphlet. After that, it was Morton’s name

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

that started appearing again, and Morton’s style was uncannily like
Macfarlane’s - precisely, because it was, indeed, Helen Macfarlane!

In his final chapter, The Legacy of Hegelian Marxism, Dave Black emphasises
how Helen Macfarlane’s known work only spanned a short period in mid¬
nineteenth century England. Furthermore, that:

.. .she never got to lead mass movements or write major theoretical works... (p. 131)

So, she was not like some other women, such as Rosa Luxemburg, who did
write theoretical material and this perhaps, also partly explains why she went
so totally into obscurity. Instead, Macfarlane was of the opinion that ‘...theory
had to be more than just a parade of theories...’ (Black, p.109). Furthermore:

Macfarlane demands organizational responsibility from theoreticians: that they make
themselves useful “without distracting the attention of the people” from the practical
issues, and provide, as Marx claims in the Manifesto “critical insights into the
conditions, the course, and the general results of real social movement, (p. 110)

However, although effective organisation is obviously important, I would argue
that that there is an urgent need to develop theory. Furthermore, that we
cannot move on to really effective political action until we have this theoretical
base much more firmly established. Indeed, this is the main thrust of my own
work. My aim is to take Marxist theory and to make it applicable to the global
capitalist world that we find ourselves in today (see, for example, R.Rikowski,
2005)

However, as Dave Black says:

Helen Macfarlane was indeed a rare “original character”; her expression of “Hegelian-
Marxism” - though undeveloped and cut short - seems to me still relevant and still
resonant. In Hegel’s philosophy, the “cunning of reason” works through the
development of human consciousness toward a full concept of Freedom. In
Macfarlane’s interpretation, the “democratic idea”is the process by which twenty-five
thousand years of struggle in thought and in life finally results in the “practical
realizaton” of a “golden age”, “without poor, without classes...not only of free men but
of free women”. (Referenced from Hegel, Science of Logic, 756)

Furthermore, it is interesting to note that Marx, in one of his letters, said that
Macfarlane was ‘rare’ and ‘original’ (p. 118) Thus, it is clear that Macfarlane’s
interpretation of ‘Hegelian-Marxism’, particularly in regard to the concept of
Freedom and the ‘democratic idea’, has played an important historical
contribution to Marxist thinking in general, and this is another point that Dave
Black seeks to highlight in his book.

I would very much recommend this book. It rescues Helen Macfarlane from
obscurity, and restores her place in history. It also forwards the cause of both
Marxism and Feminism in general - and, indeed, I am both a Marxist and a
Feminist!

The book includes a useful index and 2 appendices. The first appendix is a list
of the published writings of Helen MacFarlane. Her work (most of which was
published under the name of Howard Morton), appeared in Democratic

Information for Social Change - Issue 21

Review, Red Republican and Friend of the People. The second is Helen
MacFarlane’s 1850 translation of the Communist Manifesto.

Reference

Rikowski, Ruth (2005) Globalisation, Information and Libraries: the
implications of the World Trade Organisation’s GATS and TRIPS Agreements,
Chandos: Oxford

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